If you really squinted – perhaps with the aid of a 36-hour plane trip or a handful of 1970s anxiety medication – there was a time when you could have claimed England had pulled off a tactical masterstroke. When the looming threat of the day was Mitchell Starc bowling in the gloaming at around 6pm Brisbane time, perhaps the smart play was to let him bat in the hot sun for four hours first, tuckering him out so your openers could smash him.
It may have been a calculation Starc also considered when wondering whether to throw the bat or to keep on grinding out runs. In the end, he valued more that each of them added to Australia’s lead. The team’s principal bowling weapon burnished his series contribution with 77 runs from 141 balls, 22 runs below his highest score and three deliveries below his longest. Scott Boland similarly produced his second-longest innings, riding shotgun with an unbeaten 21 from 72 balls, a partnership that wore England thin.
