Viva the Ashes! Long live Test cricket!

Pat Cummins of Australia and Ben Stokes of England pose with the Ashes Trophy following day five of the Ashes 5th Test match between England and Australia at The Oval.

At 6.25pm a milky evening light bathed The Oval, and a breeze stiffened the flags atop the pavilion behind Stuart Broad as he ran in. A fleeting thought: why was he retiring? Perhaps because life could hardly get better than this.

A last left-hander for his delectation: Alex Carey’s outside edge carried through to Jonny Bairstow. Amazing scenes! Glorious memories! And after 24 of a possible 25 days, Australia and England …. had played one another to a standstill.

No decision, then, though perhaps a shared moral victory, insofar as both teams stuck fast to their respective methods, England playing a vivid, expansive, sometimes electrifying cricket, Australia a game less volatile, more orthodox and occasionally downright dogged. England scored at 4.6 an over, Australia 3.18, and the lesson is that both ways can work.

The day dawned exactly as one would wish, with every result possible. Australia was well placed to hoist England by their chasing petard and come by their first series win in England in 22 years. England, as Philomena Cunk would say, stood at a fork in their crossroads, wondering how to reconcile vibes with victory. All that was missing were the Ashes. Imagine, for a moment, had they been at stake.

Pat Cummins of Australia lifts the Ashes Urn alongside teammates.

For much of the morning, rain felt minutes away and edges in constant peril: Chris Woakes beat David Warner on the outside and Usman Khawaja on the inside in a wonderfully controlled spell. Mark Wood sent a bouncer so far over Jonny Bairstow’s head that the keeper could have stood on his own shoulders and failed to reach it. Next ball, however, Zak Crawley pocketed Marnus Labuschagne’s nick at second slip, and Steven Smith’s vagrant bat then just saved him from lbw.

As has often occurred in these Ashes, there emerged an esoteric controversy, fuelled by television, about the replacement ball: had it been too new? Blurry photographs were reproduced, data cited, investigations demanded, although perfidious Albion had destroyed the evidence by bowling with said ball. Cunning!

And yet, and yet. The ball still needed to be swung, which was mainly down to the skill of Woakes and Broad - Anderson, the greatest swing bowler of his generation, obtained nothing like the same assistance. The conditions also needed to be helpful, which was the almighty’s prerogative - on another day, you could have changed the ball every over to no effect. Nor was the change entirely advantageous for England, for sometimes the ball did too much.

In any case, no sharp practice was demonstrable; the decision was in the hands of the umpires. While all this was going on, furthermore, Smith and Head were proving batting to be perfectly possible, even enjoyable: the pitch, after all, has done nothing for five days but improve. In the half dozen overs after Woakes took a breather, the pair profited by 35 runs.

Yet we’d have gone on debating this slight zephyr in a reservoir-sized teacup had it not been superseded by Ben Stokes’s catch that wasn’t - and clearly wasn’t, joining the annals of catches spoiled by premature celebrations (Gatting missing Border at Lord’s in 1985, Gibbs’ Waugh in 1999 etc).

England's Stuart Broad (R) celebrates with England's James Anderson (L) after England's victory on day five of the fifth Ashes cricket Test.

The Ashes Waterford Crystal Trophy and replica Urn are pictured at the presentation ceremony.

Rain allowed three hours to brood over the potential cost of this gaffe: one noted that premature celebration has been an English tendency all summer, from the end of day one at Edgbaston to the end of day three at Old Trafford. And when play resumed at 4.20pm with 47 overs remaining, Australia’s objective (146 runs) looked decidedly more straightforward than England’s (seven wickets) - the more so when Smith cover drove and pulled Woakes for militant boundaries.

Just then, however, a resumption of Head’s old susceptibilities to off-spin, and a sharp catch by Root off Moeen opened an end, which sometimes is all it takes. It was the first of five Australian wickets for 30 in 47 balls, providing Crawley with his eighth and ninth catches of the series - his fielding has been almost as valuable as his batting this summer.

The crucial wicket, of course, was Smith, ominously sure for nearly two and a half hours, until he defended faultily; the crucial bowler was Woakes, on his way to a well deserved series award. It’s 10 years since Woakes made his Test debut on this ground, and was unbeaten on 17 when the umpires called the players in with England five wickets down needing only 21 runs for victory.

History since has seemed to toy a little with this admirable cricketer. Would he ever be a full-fledged Ashes winner? Before his recall for Headingley, he had only twice played in Test wins against Australia, contributing meagrely to each. His 19 wickets at 18 along with useful runs and cool temper have filled that gap in his career.

England's Chris Woakes celebrates after taking the wicket of Australia's Steven Smith on day five.

Still Australia did not capitulate. Carey drove Moeen over the top for six; beaten monotonously by Broad outside the off stump, Todd Murphy flicked him over the top and swivelled into a stylish pull. Then, one last glimmer of Broad the gamesman, swapping the bails at the non-striker’s end in a way that is bound to start a fad but here did the trick again.

“What Test cricket needed,’’ pronounced Ben Stokes afterwards with clear satisfaction. It was tempting to assent. The 2023 Ashes certainly contained classic matches, and imperishable passages of play, mainly from the hosts: Stokes’ assault at Lord’s, Wood’s insurgency at Headingley, Crawley’s blitz at Old Trafford.

But, at risk of pooping the party, nor could one ignore the context. This was an Ashes series not an Ashes summer. Australia have shoehorned six Tests into 54 days, England six into 60. Australia now does not play its next Test until December 14, England its next until January 25.

Hours before the day began, one team beat another in Dallas, concluding a fortnight of T20 funded largely by Indian capital and principally sponsored by an online betting company; today, one team plays another in Nottingham to commence The Hundred, in which the England Cricket Board will in due course try selling to similar corporate interests. Viva the Ashes! Long live Test cricket! That might be the most premature celebration of all.