Twenty-five days of gripping Test cricket came down to a one-armed man painfully scampering 22 yards of south London turf.

There had been an element of farce to the previous evening, with players went to the dressing rooms because of rain and bad light when the game was on a knife-edge, then stayed there as the gloom turned to evening sunshine. Any frustration over the events of the previous day turned into anticipation of what might be possible on Monday.

Thirty-five runs or four wickets. The Oval was sold out, as they turn up in great numbers, filling the historic venue with constant noise and nervous energy, as echoes of the 2005 Ashes classic in Birmingham, when Edgbaston was full for what might have only been two deliveries of action.

Just like then, there was a rich reward for turning up. India's six-run win here is the narrowest of its kind in this country since England beat Australia by two runs 20 years ago.

When Jamie Overton took fours off each of the first two balls of the day, England had almost a quarter of the runs they required. It was the best it got.

Jamie Smith has looked increasingly frazzled in his first five-Test series as a wicketkeeper. He wafted at two deliveries, then edged the third.

And when Overton was struck on the pad, umpire Kumar Dharmasena paid his own 2005 tribute with the slow finger of Rudi Koertzen. Josh Tongue had a scattergun game with the ball and found himself as the last line of defence before the stricken Chris Woakes.

On Sunday evening, Woakes somehow folded his dislocated shoulder into a set of cricket whites, which sounds excruciatingly painful in itself. When Tongue had his stumps rearranged by Prasidh Krishna, security staff rushed on to the outfield, believing the match to be over.

They had not been briefed that Woakes, the nicest man in cricket, is also the bravest. Earlier this year, Woakes had a tattoo inked on his left triceps in memory of his late father Roger, who died last year.

Now the same arm was strapped under his England sweater as he descended the pavilion stairs, putting his broken body on the line for the Three Lions on his chest. History will remember Woakes as a World Cup winner in both formats, an Ashes winner and one of the finest seamers in English conditions.

How painful it must have been for him to run three times between the wickets, his shoulder jolted by every step. Mercifully, he never faced a delivery.

While Woakes played Jack Leach, Gus Atkinson could not ape Ben Stokes. Atkinson was bowled attempting to hit the six that would have levelled the scores and won the series.

According to Stokes, Woakes' reaction in the dressing room was to "shrug his shoulder", which is probably the last thing he should have done. The last word went to Mohammed Siraj, who personified the unbreakable spirit and never-say-die attitude of a young India team.

He carried the torch of the retired Virat Kohli, with the ability to get into a fight in a phone box. There was barely a time in this Test when Siraj was not bowling, haring in with the pavilion behind him.

Thriving on responsibility, both Siraj's average and strike-rate are better when he is not playing in the shadow of Jasprit Bumrah. India's two wins in this series came in matches Bumrah did not play. A series level at 2-2 was a fair result, even if England will feel aggrieved, they were denied in the drawn fourth Test at Old Trafford.

If they had caught Ravindra Jadeja on nought in Manchester, or any of the six they dropped in India's second innings here, it might have been different. The sight of India great Sunil Gavaskar leading his TV production staff in song on the Oval outfield said much about which side would be happier with the result.

It was highly creditable for England to get so close to chasing down 374, what would have been their second highest of all time. It was also a missed opportunity for a statement series win.

Whisper it quietly, but there is a chance this was the last home Test for the England team as we know it. There is certainly a scenario where a poor Ashes leads to one of captain Stokes or coach Brendon McCullum walking away.