How cruel. What a crying shame it should end this way. Two days of Manchester rain have denied us what would have been one of the biggest matches in English cricket history.
A decider at the Oval with the score at 2-2 and the force very much with England in their quest to complete their greatest Ashes comeback would have been as good as it gets.
That final Test on Thursday will still have much riding on it – a drawn series would be a commendable result for England from two down – but it is not the same.
This Ashes series for the ages will not have the finale it deserves. There will be no 2005 moment now. Just an everlasting sense of what might have been for England.
Make no mistake, England would have won this fourth Test had there been just a couple more hours play over the last two days, two sessions at most. They produced a near perfect game at the perfect time until the weather gods decided to spoil the fun.
Australia have retained the Ashes after drawing the fourth test at Old Trafford
England captain Ben Stokes saw his Ashes hopes washed out by the miserable Manchester rain
Torrential downpours prevented any play from taking place on Sunday at Old Trafford
It will be a hollow triumph for Australia unless they pick themselves up off the floor at the Oval and somehow produce a performance worthy of the best Test team in the world.
They have looked anything but that at Old Trafford and, in truth, for the bulk of this series. Australia have been battered and bullied here to the point of being broken while captain Pat Cummins may never recover from this bruising, at least as a leader.
It may not be much of a consolation at the moment but England have been much the better side in this Ashes. They will be cursing the Manchester rain but they should never have lost the first Test at Edgbaston nor had a costly and self-destructive episode at Lord’s.
It is England who have played like world champions. England who have thrilled and entertained an old and what could be a new generation of Test cricket fans and England who have shown that Bazball, with a little refinement, can work against the very best teams.
What is indisputable is that England have made all the running since the controversial incident at Lord’s when Alex Carey ‘stumped’ – I still say that should be run out – Jonny Bairstow and all hell broke loose among the MCC members in the Lord’s pavilion.
Before then this had been the friendly Ashes but that sense of injustice immediately galvanised England in the form of a stirring innings from Ben Stokes, with bristling support from Stuart Broad, that almost brought them a second Test victory.
England then carried on being the dominant force at Headingley, even though they were wobbling at lunch on the second day, and then the stars aligned for Bazball to have its greatest hour so far, albeit a curtailed one, here at Old Trafford.
Stokes did everything in his power to win this Test in fast-forward and was right to bat on while Bairstow was in full flow on Friday because it gave them a chance of turning this into a three-innings match. But it was all to no avail.
Marnus Labuschagne survived at the crease for 111 runs before being caught behind on Saturday
Jonny Bairstow produces an epic 99 not out performance with the bat in England’s first innings
Australia, meanwhile, were spooked by the sight of revolting MCC pensioners at Lord’s and two of the nicest members of their team – Cummins and Carey – have not been the same since they combined to miss a golden opportunity to do the right thing and call Bairstow back.
It is all very well for Cummins to say he has no regrets about following the letter of cricket’s laws and for Carey to say he would do the same thing again.
But in time they will surely realise, as Brendon McCullum did after a similar incident in his playing days, that they did not see the wider picture and allowed the importance of the occasion to cloud their judgment. They almost paid for that with the series.
There was much gnashing of teeth on Saturday, at least on social media, over what more could have been done to get this show on the road but in truth it was so wet and miserable in Manchester that cricket simply had to concede defeat to the weather.
Australia captain Pat Cummins may never recover from the bruising his side have endured despite their overall success
England entertained and got the crowd off their seats both with bat and ball at Old Trafford
Two days solid rain – and on the last two days of the Test, too – is rare and it has come here at the worst possible time. But unless reserve days are built in – and good luck with that with cricket’s bonkers schedules– nothing could have saved this fourth Test.
Joe Root’s suggestion on Test Match Special that play should carry on each day until the allotted overs are bowled is a valid one – if nothing else it might encourage the players to get on with it. But a full 90 each day would not have made the difference here.
Nor was yesterday’s announcement that lunch would be taken at 12.20pm when it was not actually raining a good look for the game. But, fact is, the officials knew the outfield would not be ready until at least 1pm so they got lunch out of the way. Then it rained again.
There has been plenty for England to relish in this Ashes. Not least the impact Mark Wood, and more quietly Chris Woakes, made in the last two Tests. And the spectacular validation of their faith in Zak Crawley with one of the great Test centuries.
Australia haven’t looked like the world champions they are and this will be a hollow victory for them unless they win at the Oval
Zak Crawley was England’s ace with the bat as he scored 189 runs in England’s first innings
They will take great pleasure, too, in the return to form of Bairstow with both bat and gloves as he remains one of the most important members of Bazball England.
For now England must put the huge disappointment of the first draw of the Bazball era behind them and work out the best team to play on Thursday at the Oval.
Woakes looks a doubt with hamstring stiffness while debate will rage on over whether Jimmy Anderson’s extraordinary career is coming to an end. There will be questions too as to whether Broad, now with 600 wickets to his name, can play in all six Tests of the summer.
England really do need to carry on the same way they played here. The final Test does matter. But whatever happens at the Oval their Ashes dream is over and, agonisingly, there was nothing they could do about it here.
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