Haseeb Hameed's first Test hurrah and the Mannequin Challenge gave everyone pause for thought in the drawn opening Test between India and England.
Coupled with Adil Rashid's re-emergence as a spin sorcerer, the arrival of DRS in India and Alastair Cook eclipsing Sir Donald Bradman, it was quite a five days in Rajkot…
Hameed's heroics
Let's open with the teenager. Wise decision. Now, the pitch at Rajkot didn't rag square - this was no devilish Dhaka or crazy-paved Chittagong - but even so, Haseeb Hameed produced a dreamy debut that made a mockery of those who pigeon-holed his game as more attune to timeless Tests.
Using the crease with the agility of a scrawny Billy Elliott, the 19-year-old scored 113 runs - becoming the third-youngest English batsman to score a fifty on debut in the process - but it was the manner in which he went about his business that impressed most.
"It's funny how some players look born to do play Test cricket," mused Mike Atherton, before comparing Hameed's fledgling career to the start of Joe Root's.
Playing fully forward and fully back, Hameed countered the world's No 1 bowler Ravichandran Ashwin with a heartening surety before being undone by some drift from around the wicket in the first dig and selflessly going on the offensive in the second.
The pick of his shots? A six down the ground off Ravindra Jadeja. Refreshingly, his demeanour is as cool, calm and collected off the pitch as it is on it and, based on the speed of his reactions as he snapped up Amit Mishra, there are the makings of an exceptional close catcher in there too.
Mannequin mayhem
Sir Ian Botham is usually in perpetual motion but even he paused to take part in the latest craze sweeping social media - the Mannequin Challenge - offering a prolonged view of the very rare sight of Beefy getting the teas in.
Time had not, as Nasser Hussain would later suggest, stopped still while Mike Atherton told one of his stories - rather the statuesque commentators struck a pose for the 71-second video which quickly went viral around the world.
Nowhere more so than in India where the sight of Kapil Dev tucking into some tiffin and the ever-stylish Laxman Sivaramakrishnan doing his barnet are presumably must-see sights.
Nasser would later do his own version of the Mannequin Challenge in the nets when attempting to hit a young spinner for four - advancing only to then appear motionless as he was beaten in the flight to be stumped by an absolute distance.
This mishap came just a day after the Sky Sports commentator kicked a stumped out of the ground after dragging another spinner, with an action eerily reminiscent of Graeme Swann, into his wicket.
Rashid re-born
If England have answered the eternal question of who will partner Alastair Cook long-term at the top of the innings (until he retires, at least), then they might just have the solution to their spin-bowling conundrum too after Adil Rashid returned his best match figures in a Test - following up his first-innings of 4-114 with 3-64.
After a baffling array of deliveries in Bangladesh, England's spin attack in general upped its game in Rajkot with Rashid's improvement the most telling: improved pace + control = wickets + confidence boost.
Unsurprisingly, Cook's belief in his leggie also took a sharp upturn and the stock of spin coach Saqlain Mushtaq is certainly on the rise.
Those tempted to pack Rashid off back home before the series even began suddenly had to think again - Bob Willis even remarking: "One swallow doesn't make a summer but it was fine bowling and I take my hat off to him." That counts as high praise from Bob!
The temptation was to throw Rashid into the attack as early as possible - a temptation Cook resisted in both innings in part, presumably, because of the difficulty of gripping the newer, more slippery ball. Whatever the reason, Rashid's form bodes well for England for the rest of the series.
The right decision
Oh, the trials of technology. The arrival of DRS into India was greeted jubilantly in some quarters, most conspicuously by the family of Cheteshwar Pujara after India's number four successfully overturned an lbw decision won by Zafar Ansari when he had 86 in the first innings - Pujara going on to make 124.
His second innings dismissal goes to show that your fate is only as good as your batting partner's judgement - Pujara falling lbw to an Adil Rashid delivery that Murali Vijay failed to spot had pitched outside leg.
You've got to wonder about these sharp-eyed opening batsmen - Alastair Cook's wicket the first to fall in the Test when Hameed didn't insist he reviewed a Ravindra Jadeja delivery that was slipping down leg. Way to impress your skipper!
Hameed then compounded his slip up by wasting a review on his dismissal when trapped in front by Ashwin. The presence of DRS ramped up the tension in the final session as England probed for a clatter of wickets but it also led to a little mischief earlier in the Test - England comically reviewing a not out decision against Vijay after he middled a Moeen Ali delivery, knowing that the new ball and two new reviews were just around the corner.
Cook cracks on
The most surprising aspect of England's first-innings 537 was that Cook wasn't one of the three players to make a hundred. The combined efforts of Joe Root, Moeen Ali and Ben Stokes ensured that, for the first time in almost 55 years, the tourists chalked up three centuries in an innings on the sub-continent.
Once Murali Vijay and Pujara had countered with tons of their own, Cook was back in 2012 mode as he cruised to his fifth century in India - a new record as he eclipsed the four apiece scored by South Africa's Hashim Amla and West Indian duo Clive Lloyd and Everton Weekes.
The 30th Test ton of his career also took him above Australian legend Sir Donald Bradman (who scored his 29 hundreds in rather fewer Tests - taking just 52 in comparison to Cook's 136) and level with Australian Matthew Hayden and West Indian Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
Seriously, why would you even entertain the idea of retiring from the captaincy when in such nick - a point Cook was keen to impress on the media before the Test. And you know what? I reckon he got England's second innings declaration pretty much spot on too.
Watch the second Test between India and England at Visakhapatnam live on Sky Sports 2 from 3.30am on Thursday.