Having been reduced to 82 for 7 while chasing 193 against England at Lord's in the third Test match of the five-match series, India came within touching distance, only to fall short by 22 runs. Ravindra Jadeja played a lone hand with his unbeaten 61 and deserves all the credit for keeping the Indian hopes alive, but the resilience, fight, and courage shown by the lower-order comprising Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj will most likely be forgotten in the shadows of defeat, when it probably deserves a chapter of its own.

Siraj walking back to the dressing room after playing on against offspinner Shoaib Bashir will perhaps scar him for life.

That final fall seemed as if it carried the weight of the entire team, and that walk, perhaps the longest and the loneliest he has ever had. Some failures in sport just end in silence. Former South African speedster Allan Donald described his experience while speaking to Paddy Upton, who was part of India's backroom staff in the 2011 ODI World Cup, as the mental conditioning and strategic leadership coach.

With scores level, Lance Klusener was one hit away from taking South Africa to the ICC World Cup final in 1999, whereas a tie would have been good enough for Australia to qualify for the summit clash. But as fate would have it, Donald, who had survived a run-out scare earlier in the over, was caught ball watching, and by the time he responded to Klusener's desperate call, it was already too late. South Africa missed out on a spot in the World Cup final by the barest of margins. There was jubilation in one corner, and the other sank into disbelief, agony, and heartbreak. Donald stayed back in England, quietly sought therapy, and began sessions with a psychologist to confront the trauma. It wasn't easy, but it helped him make peace with it.

Six years later, Former Australian pacer, Michael Kasprowicz, had stitched together a valiant 59-run last wicket stand with Brett Lee and took Australia to the brink of an improbable victory in the second Ashes Test in 2005 in the same venue. They fell short by 2 runs. Enough to change the momentum of the series. England won the Ashes 2-1 after 18 years.

The parallels are eerie. And Siraj, Donald, and Kasprowicz, bound by heartbreak, may all look to the heavens and murmur, 'The fault is in our stars.' It is the tailender's curse. They would know that they should not be there in the first place. In all three occasions, there is one thing constant - the batters failed to do their job, and the bowlers carried the weight of their collective failures.