© AFP/Getty Images

The defining image of the second England vs India Test last week came at its denouement - last man James Anderson frozen in position trying to defend the stumps even after a Mohammed Siraj delivery cleaved clean through them. The Indian team whooped and hollered and ran amok around him, ripping out the stumps for souvenirs, still Anderson held his pose - and in that long moment every England fan probably felt the disappointment as viscerally as he did.

Disappointment - is there a sportsperson who hasn't experienced it or a fan who hasn't felt it? It's in the slope of the shoulders and the bowed head of a batter heading back to pavilion, in the slumped form of the bowler as the batters take the winning runs, in the slow tread of a team heading out to watch their opponents pick up the trophy.

Paul Walter is a picture of abject misery after being bowled out in a game against Middlesex in the Bob Willis Trophy in 2020 © Getty Images

Often it's the little things that get away from you, like the ball that ran away for a four despite all your efforts...

Jason Gillespie knows sometimes the best way to deal with a disappointment is a lie-down Darren England / © Getty Images

Or the ball that you so nearly caught...

Mark Stoneman looks around at his team-mates after dropping Ish Sodhi in the second Test against New Zealand in 2018 Kai Schwoerer / © Getty Images

Kemar Roach lets his team know exactly how he feels about their fielding during the third ODI between West Indies and India in Port-of-Spain in 2019.

"The stumps are right there!" Randy Brooks / © AFP/Getty Images

Neil Wagner is as expressive with his dismay as with his wicket celebrations.

New Zealand have some of the best fielding in cricket because they don't want to provoke this reaction from Wagner Kai Schwoerer / © Getty Images

Indian cricket fans don't hold back when they are disappointed in their team. When India were knocked out of the 2007 World Cup after losing to Sri Lanka, protests erupted all over the country, with people burning effigies of cricketers and pelting stones at MS Dhoni's house in Ranchi.

Fans in Ahmedabad held a mock funeral for the death of Indian cricket in 2007 Sam Panthaki / © AFP

World Cup defeats sting a little more than most, as Graham Thorpe and Jack Russell will tell you.

England are crestfallen after their quarter-final defeat to Sri Lanka in the 1996 World Cup © Getty Images

Sometimes the blow falls even before a ball is bowled.

Coach David Lloyd and captain Michael Atherton break the news to Nick Knight that he won't be playing in the second Test against India in 1996 Tony Harris / © PA Photos/Getty Images

Deepti Unni is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

 

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