England piling up 393-8 at more than five runs an over was made all the more compelling by Australia's attempts to contain them, but that was nothing compared to Ben Stokes' jaw-dropping declaration half an hour before the close.

Michael Slater hitting Phil DeFreitas' first ball for four in 1994, Steve Harmison's wide in 2006 and Rory Burns being bowled by Mitchell Starc in 2021 all set Australia on the path to victory.Bazball verdict It did not regain the urn but it did exactly what it promised, so you can’t really argue against it. Thrills, spills and an Ashes that threatened to explode our brains on a daily basis. Failure doesn’t matter, it turns out, when you fail this entertainingly. Even questioning Stokes is tantamount to heresy. It is decisions like these that have helped England to 11 wins in their previous 13 Tests. He got it right in Mount Maunganui and against Pakistan in Rawalpindi before that.

Australia face the prospect of some fine batting conditions on Saturday. England can look forward to some hard yakka. Although the pitch seems like a featherbed now, there is a suggestion of low bounce and turn. In 2017-18 he went down under without Stokes because of the Bristol incident. In 2019, Root watched James Anderson limp out of the series after bowling only four overs. England are enchanting, riding the wave of hope and expectation from fans that believe in them again.Sir Alastair Cook, who has swapped playing on these mornings for talking about them, carries out the famous urn flanked by flames. David Warner v Stuart Broad. Steve Smith's path to becoming the most prolific Ashes run-getter since Don Bradman. Broad and James Anderson's final stab at the Aussies. Moeen Ali's return. Travis Head's moustache. Zak Crawley's outside edge.

If it does not work here, he will rightly or wrongly shrug his shoulders and commit to doing the same thing all over again. McCullum was in the foothills of a Twenty20 coaching career but had been the name buzzing around Key’s mind since the start, impressed by his captaincy of New Zealand. That joyful team had already been the muse for England’s white-ball resurgence under Eoin Morgan and Trevor Bayliss, with the former asked for a reference on an admittedly close friend but having also seen first-hand his nascent second career at Kolkata Knight Riders. When he arrived at the crease before lunch he was greeted with more gaps than a politician's explanation. Farewell to … The northern Test venues, Warner, any pretence of trying to make the players get through their stipulated 90 overs in a day, Khawaja, Stokes’s career as a Test match all-rounder, Robinson’s reputation as the next great English seam bowler, Broad, of course, oh and Lord’s air of grace and civility, if not, apparently, its divine right to host two Tests a year. One day in and the most hyped Ashes series in a generation has started by more than living up to expectations. Where on earth do we go from here?Head got serenaded for dropping an admittedly tough chance off Harry Brook, Lyon the subject of a rude comparison with Moeen Ali from the Hollies Stand. What can we expect in 2025? Two new captains, probably. Stokes’s body seems highly unlikely to make it to the rematch and the pressure on Cummins’s leadership in the second half of this series was telling. Simon Burnton

Eighteen months ago, in a series that ended with Ollie Robinson bowled from closer to square leg than his own stumps, the distance between the two teams seemed every inch the 10,000-plus miles between London and Sydney.Less remembered are England being rolled by Glenn McGrath on the first day at Lord's in 2005 and Andrew Strauss' third-ball dismissal in 2010-11, both series England won.