It was an innings for the ages, a century that defied a formidable, relentless pace attack on a spicy pitch. And it stood out like a racehorse alongside greyhounds, with no other teammate even managing a half-century in either innings. But it came in defeat.
That is a description of Virat Kohli's fine 153 at Centurion in January. Yet, by the end of yesterday's match against England, it equally served as an accurate description of his 149 and 51 at Edgbaston.
This was India's fourth away Test in 2018, after three fiercely contested matches in South Africa. While Kohli has adorned these games with those two resplendent centuries, his teammates have only one half-century - Hardik Pandya's audacious 93 in Cape Town, the first Test of the sequence - between them.
Across these matches, Kohli has an absurd 29% of India's total runs.
In the 1930s Ron Headley, the great West Indian batsman, came to be known as Atlas, so great was the burden on his shoulders. During Tests he played in that decade, Headley scored 26.5% of West Indies' runs, a lower share than Kohli has scored of India's away runs so far this year.
By the time Ravichandran Ashwin flashed James Anderson behind, 68 other Indian batsmen had been to the wicket and back, with only that solitary half-century of Pandya's between them.That is why India have reached 300 just once across seven innings in this sequence of games.
Eighty years ago Headley was simply bereft of batting teammates with much Test pedigree. The great frustration for Kohli is it is not the same for him. The rest of the top six in this Test series against England have 29 Test centuries between them - even though Cheteshwar Pujara, and his 14 Test hundreds, was dropped due to a dreadful stint for Yorkshire.
TENSION MOUNTED
Little of this pedigree was evident as India began their chase of 194. Four of India's five wickets fell caught behind.
It was for England to hold their nerve - which they did to complete a tense 31-run victory over the visitors on an enthralling fourth morning of the first of five Tests.
India - resuming on 110/5 in pursuit of 194 - were bowled out for 162 as tension mounted in a boisterous crowd.
James Anderson removed Dinesh Karthik with the sixth ball of the day before Ben Stokes produced a brilliant over to dismiss captain Kohli for 51 and Mohammed Shami.
The all-rounder sealed victory by having Pandya caught at first slip to finish with 4/40.
Both of captain Joe Root's gambles paid off: Stokes struck twice in his first over and recalled leg-spinner Adil Rashid trapped Ishant Sharma in his first over.
Stokes in particular bowled with aggression and intelligence, though he is set to miss the second Test at Lord's as his court case for affray begins tomorrow.
India's performance was a far cry from their dismal tour four years ago and bodes well for the remainder of the series...