Almanac Cricket: A few metres

The ball sails gently into the air, eminently catchable. Two nations hold their collective breath. The England captain, hailed for days as a tactical genius, stumbles backwards, reaches high, holds the catch, then drops the catch as he hits the ground.

A few metres further back in his fielding position, he would pouch a simple catch and England probably win.

A few metres further back, after nearly five days play.

Those few metres unleash a torrent of cricket experts, all suddenly screaming that Bazball is dead, just as they’ve been screaming that Test cricket is dead. Millions around the world go to work the next morning, all telling their friends that they’ve just witnessed one of the greatest games of cricket they’ve ever seen.

In those five days, countless moments have affected the game, each one of which might have led to a different result, in which case the experts would have all hailed Bazball and excoriated the other team for its defensive tactics.

What I saw was cricket at its best, played as it should be. Power to the English players, entertaining, gloriously foolish at times, brilliantly talented often, fallible frequently, but always watchable. Power to the Australians, recently hard to wholeheartedly support at times, but making us all proud of their courage and grit now.

And to the captains, the ailing, but mercurial Stokes and the much criticised, but match-winning Cummins, whose ‘wokeness’ seemed to be an asset now.

And the winner? Test cricket and us, waiting for the next Test at Lord’s, the home of cricket.

May Father Time look down on another great game in the history of the greatest game.