One of the numerous standing ovations that have greeted Alastair Cook in this Test had barely died down when Jimmy Anderson set about grabbing some of the applause for himself.

Most of the game has been about England’s leading Test run-scorer, but England’s leading Test wicket-taker was preparing for his own place in the record books. He needed only two more scalps to draw level with Australia’s Glenn McGrath on 563 – the most by any seamer. It took him all of 12 balls.

After beginning with a maiden, Anderson swung the third delivery of his second over into the pads of the left-handed Shikhar Dhawan, who was so plumb he didn’t even bother with a review – a rarity for opening batsmen in a summer where they have snatched at any lifeline available.

Jimmy Anderson moved level with Australia's Glenn McGrath on 563 Test wickets on Monday

MOST TEST WICKETS TAKEN PLAYER NAME SPAN BALLS WICKETS M Muralitharan (ICC/SL)

SK Warne (AUS)

A Kumble (INDIA)

GD McGrath (AUS)

JM Anderson (ENG)

CA Walsh (WI)

N Kapil Dev (INDIA)

SCJ Broad (ENG)

Sir RJ Hadlee (NZ)

HMRKB Herath (SL) 1992-2010

1992-2007

1990-2008

1993-2007

2003-PRESENT

1984-2001

1978-1994

2007-PRESENT

1973-1990

1999-2018 44,039

40,705

40,850

29,248

31,395

30,019

27,740

25,211

21,918

25,705 800

708

619

563

563

519

434

433

431

430

Three balls later, Anderson jagged one back into the pads of Cheteshwar Pujara, who has been India’s second-best batsman behind Virat Kohli. Umpire Wilson had no doubt about this one either, and Pujara ran out of time to ask for a review, which was just as well: he was plumb too.

Pujara had made a duck, India were one for two, and Anderson had two for none. He was level with McGrath, and his bowling average stood at 26.81 – the lowest since the end of his fifth Test, way back in 2003, three years before Cook’s debut.

As one great heads for the exit, another is getting better. It is hard to know which man English cricket should be more grateful for.

And so the stage was set for Anderson to pass McGrath with the wicket of Kohli, the wicket he has craved most, and set the seal on a perfect day for English cricket – so perfect that an overdue century for Joe Root came and went as if he had been chalking them off all summer.

But India’s princeling captain continued to elude him. Pushing tentatively at the first ball he faced, from Stuart Broad, he was caught behind by Jonny Bairstow. It was an understandably tired shot, the result perhaps of shouldering his side’s burden since the first Test at Edgbaston.

And it summed up the manner in which India’s spirit has gradually been sapped. They are set to lose 4-1, when they might, given a fair wind, have won 3-2. It can be a cruel game.

Anderson celebrates after taking the wicket of India's Shikhar Dhawan on Monday evening

Anderson and England's team celebrate after the bowler dismisses Cheteshwar Pujara for lbw

And so, while Kohli has been dismissed twice in these five Tests by each of Broad, Ben Stokes, Adil Rashid and Chris Woakes, and once apiece by Sam Curran and Moeen Ali, he has not been dismissed at all by the bowler who has troubled him most.

Even while Anderson joined in the celebrations and the scoreboard read two for three, he would not have been human had a small part of him not bristled at the injustice of it all. This summer, the magnificent Kohli has treated the magnificent Anderson with a respect bordering on paranoia. The world’s No 1 batsman has taken everything the world’s No 1 bowler has hurled at him, and somehow emerged unscathed.

He has been beaten repeatedly outside off stump and dropped three times, and in the first innings here he narrowly survived an lbw shout – the rejection of which sent Anderson into a dark place, leading to words with the umpire, a fine and a disciplinary demerit point.

Anderson is congratulated by his England team-mates after taking the symbolic wicket

Yet despite those frustrations, Anderson currently has 23 wickets in this series – five more than anyone on either side – at an average of 17. And he has dismissed 13 of the 17 Indians to have batted. Almost no one has been safe.

As if to underline the point, Anderson came close to overhauling McGrath in the over after his double strike, when the ball looped off some part of KL Rahul to Cook at first slip. England asked for a review, hoping India were about to slump to eight for four. But he was neither caught, nor leg-before – and Anderson will have to wait.

If he passes McGrath on Tuesday, only a trio of spin-bowling legends will stand ahead of him: Anil Kumble on 619 Test wickets, Shane Warne on 708 and Muttiah Muralitharan on 800.

We were in the presence of greatness at The Oval – and that wasn’t all because of Alastair Cook.