Or this, for a tailpiece? Towards the end, vice-captain Justice Pradeep Nandrajog had apparently lost all hope to win the tie: he did not even bother to pad up. Left to face the last over, he completely misjudged the first five balls and swung for the sixth, only to twist in the air and topple over the wickets in a jumble.

Earlier, the judges lost the toss and spread out in the field. Twisty spurts of spin from Justice S Muralidhar and a novel “slow-medium” pace from captain Justice Badar Durrez Ahamed put the lawyers on their guard, but the runs kept piling up: the lawyers amassed 196 runs.

Batting for the judges, Justice Muralidhar crossed 50 runs but the burden of single-handedly propelling the team proved too much of a strain. He was, however, selected man of the match later. After him, the youngest judge of High Court, Suresh Kait, walked in. But by now, spirits were down, as the judges needed 70 runs in two overs. Justice Siddharth Mrithul, a recent appointee to the HC Bench, evoked woeful comments from the lawyers on how he had once played for them, even as Justice Vipin Sanghi scored a duck.

The judges were all out for 131.