Welcome back to Test cricket – there’s much life in the grand old game | Barney Ronay

At last there is a contest in this Ashes series, while action in New Zealand and South Africa shows the red-ball duel is in rude health: take note, ECB

And here, as they used to say on TV game shows – as that tumble dryer, that golden fondue set, drifts off down the conveyor belt – is the Test cricket you might have had.

Four distinct but interconnected things happened overnight as England and Australia played out the opening rain-addled day of the fourth Ashes Test in Sydney. First, England and Australia played out the opening rain‑addled day at the SCG, where Joe Root’s team produced their most sustained performance of the southern summer.