The last-ditch, non-result, dead-rubber draw: there’s nothing like this | Barney Ronay


How to explain the denouement of this supposedly dead-rubber Test? Try this: life moves pretty fast, but the clocks stopped on day five at the SCG

OK: blank sheet of thought-scap. How do we root‑and‑branch this? What are the bite‑ables here? What, exactly, do our targeted people units want more of? When the England and Wales Cricket Board’s inevitable Ashes review gets round to the glorious oddity of day five of the fourth Test, it is tempting to wonder exactly how those present will dice and slice the events of Sunday afternoon at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

The last-ditch, non-result, dead‑series Test match draw: there is no other substance quite like this in sport. It’s good. It’s great. It’s irresistible. But try to explain it, and it just kind of slips away.

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