Down but not out

Never bet against world champions is the sage ringsider’s timeless rubric. Certainly not when they look to be cornered and groggy. In what is already the most imperishably thrilling cricket series staged in this country since the whole motley began 123 years ago, to regain the Ashes England need only to draw the final match, which begins at the Oval on Thursday, while Australia, strutting world champs for the past dozen years, must win it. Having humiliatingly lost the first of the five Tests at Lord’s in July, the intense euphoria of outrageous subsequent victories (by just two runs at Birmingham and three wickets at Nottingham) has had Englishmen forgetting how whisker-close on each occasion they were to losing. In between, the palpitating draw at Manchester tellingly summed up the overall state of the contest — that is, that England can readily win most rounds on points, but find it awfully difficult to land a conclusive knockout blow.