At 15:25 BST on Sunday, a statement lands in journalists' inboxes at Trent Bridge and the ground is never quite the same again. Ben Stokes — England captain, the most influential cricketer of his generation — is playing his final Test match. He had already told his teammates that morning. The crowd, who had no idea, watches him bowl with different eyes.

The timing is almost impossibly dramatic. Stokes is mid-spell, eleven overs unchanged, when the announcement goes public. With his very first ball after the news breaks, he has Zak Foulkes caught at second slip. The roar from the Nottingham crowd suggests they are watching something they will describe to people for years.

Later, when Stokes opens England's batting chase and clubs 30 runs from just 20 balls before being caught at mid-wicket, he leaves the field with his bat and helmet raised to a standing ovation. It is the kind of farewell that scripts cannot manufacture. Yet cricket — indifferent to sentiment — still has a match to resolve. New Zealand's Daryl Mitchell finishes an unbeaten century, and the Black Caps declare their second innings at 288-9, setting England a target of 373.

By the close of day four, England have reached 103-4, with 269 still needed. Mitchell's hundred and Ravindra's 94 in that second innings have put the tourists firmly in command, and a New Zealand series victory is the most probable outcome when play resumes on Monday. For an England captain to publicly confirm his retirement while still on the field is, quite simply, unprecedented in Test cricket history.