Everyone had been so excited. The rush for last-day tickets was such that the computer system buckled under the strain. Le tout Brum wanted to be there. And for the first hour at least there was a sense of overwhelming expectation.

Whatever happened to old-fashioned English fatalism? It would have served everyone better. At last we got a full but genuinely turgid day’s cricket: it was long overdue. Australia might see it as more heroic than horrid: they batted all day and achieved their immediate objective by drawing the match.