Now for the Ashes. Australia secured the first and biggest (physically) of the two trophies they hope to bring home with them from England by wrapping up victory against India in the World Test Championship final, winning by an emphatic 209 runs after a performance that, for all the penultimate-day catch-related micro-controversy, demonstrated unarguable superiority.
India arrived for the final day in search of a miracle. To pull off what would have been a world-record run chase, or even to cling on for the draw that would have led to them sharing the trophy, they needed Virat Kohli to pull a rabbit out of the hat – and to do it extremely slowly. He lasted just half an hour.
