Greatest showman Stuart Broad’s final curtain was fitting end to Ashes

It took a controversial ball change, a touch of voodoo with the bails and a final flourish from the not normally retiring Stuart Broad for England to win the final Test and level the series 2-2, a result some will regard as fair after the urn remained in Australian hands. For others, though, it may be a while before the dust, let alone the Ashes, settle.

To claim Ben Stokes’ team were robbed would be wrong, yet they have undeniably been the stronger team these past few weeks. But the world is full of opportunists who spot and take their chances and Australia were the savvier side during the early exchanges, which is why they retain the Ashes but not the corresponding bragging rights of a series win.

Having no overall winner will irk some but this five-match series, played over 46 days, has exhilarated from first ball to last and been a brilliant advert for Test cricket.

Pitting Bazball against a more traditional approach, only the 2005 Ashes has been more compelling as a sporting drama, though this one thrilled packed stadia with its near perfect ratios of gnawing tension and sweet release. Spare a thought for the cricket, or indeed any other sport, which must now follow in its wake.

Most Ashes series end at the Oval which makes it a place of farewells and stock-taking, as old is replaced by new. Often the mood is one of melancholy but not this time.

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Broad may be moving on but his final flourish with cricket was one to be celebrated as much as England’s 49-run victory. Somehow he managed both, striking the last ball he faced for six (on day four) and then taking the final wicket with his final delivery. A proper Bazball ending to an extraordinary career.

Ever the showman, Broad has long possessed a sense of theatre, though even he must have been surprised by the effectiveness of his bail switching routine.

Having done it in the first innings and been immediately rewarded with the scalp of Marnus Labuschagne (Mark Wood took the wicket), he tried it again in the second when he was bowling, and hey presto Todd Murphy was dismissed the very next ball. Sorcery, certainly, but not so much from the sporting triangle as the magic circle.

While Broad’s two wickets were a timely and symbolic conclusion to the occasion, England owed the thrust of their victory to Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali, the latter also retiring from Test cricket but not before battling Australia’s batsmen with a ricked groin.

The Warwickshire pair took four and three wickets respectively on a day where many saw Australia, who began play needing 249 runs with all ten wickets intact, as favourites.

Modern teams analyse and plan like no others in history but there are some things you cannot legislate for, such as a change of ball.

England got theirs when the original was swapped after it had struck Usman Khawaja’s helmet in the 37th over.

The protocol is for the umpires to find a replacement of similar age and wear and tear, though the one chosen looked much younger. Its behaviour was also more youthful, with more bounce and zest.

Suddenly, from batting seeming a breeze, a grim fight for survival took hold, one Australia quickly began to lose once Woakes turned the corridor of uncertainty into doom alley.

It is one of the ironies of England’s resurgence in the series, after they went 2-0 down, that Woakes (pictured), a cricketer with the fewest Bazball credentials, should be its chief architect.

Introduced for the third Test at Headingley alongside the hurtling express train that is Wood, Woakes took 19 wickets in the next three matches and was deservedly named England’s player of the series.

When Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum first expounded their Bazball philosophy, they were adamant that consistency, an abiding aim for previous generations of cricketers, was surplus to requirements.

Instead they sought the flawed genius who could turn matches with the occasional mercurial performance.

Woakes, bucks that trend, his impeccable line and length and general discipline showing there is a place for ‘Steady Eddies’ everywhere.

Over the arc of the series, England’s bowlers were the stars of the show. The swaggering stroke play of Stokes, Zak Crawley, Joe Root, Harry Brook and Jonny Bairstow may have attracted the superlatives, but placid pitches were produced to suit them.

In the end the bowlers took 93 of the 100 Australian wickets available, a feat that would have proved beyond many of their predecessors on similarly docile surfaces.

Stokes and his team don’t seem to do regrets but even they must be wondering about the ‘what ifs’ over their reckless batting in the first
two Tests. ‘What ifs’ that could have seen them lifting the urn instead 
of Australia.

Then again, they might argue, but for two days rain in Manchester, they would probably have won them back anyway, and that after giving the Aussies a 2-0 start.

Although the first three Tests were close, England dominated the last two, finishing strongly.

Risking a football analogy, they began like Leeds United under Marcelo Bielsa and finished like Manchester City under Pep Guardiola. Exciting and error strewn to begin with, then dominant to the point where an Australian team visibly wilted under the pressure, something rarely seen.

England’s naivety cost them early on but there is little doubt who the best team was by the end and it wasn’t Australia. That is not enough to regain the Ashes but it surely fulfils the other aim of Stokes’ team and that is to breathe life and meaning into Test cricket.

Thanks to them and the Aussies, who played their part well, the five-day format, with red ball, remains peerless when it comes to narrative and drama.

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