Magic of the final-over finish in Sydney is why we love Test cricket | Geoff Lemon

The format can feel like an unreasonable drain on time but that makes thrilling moments like the finale at the SGC even sweeter

This was the payoff. There can be times watching Test cricket when you wonder about the sense of investing the equivalent of a full‑time working week into a single sporting match. There can be times when a non‑contest is over in half that time and you still wonder if it was worth the expense. But then there are these times, the 15th session, the final hour of a fifth day, when the result is still on the line. The less good makes the great greater.

This, too, is the glory of the draw, when one team can be miles away from the chance of a win but can still stop the other from achieving one. In the frantic final moments at Sydney, as fielders clustered around the bat as closely as the dark clouds overhead, with Australia’s spinners having to bowl in light too bad for the quicks, England’s final pair of bowlers had to do the job with the bat while Australia’s best batter did the job with the ball. It produced a thrill that transcended the series.