Barely 24 hours previously Ashton Agar, a teenager not even included among Australian pen portraits in the match programme, had been one of the longest shots ever to be selected for an Ashes Test as he was presented with his cap by Glenn McGrath. That status has changed somewhat: from anonymity he finds himself one of the most celebrated of Australians. How swiftly can such things happen.
A few minutes before midday Agar found himself as the last man walking to the crease with his side having lost five wickets for nine runs in 31 balls to a rampant Jimmy Anderson and Graeme Swann. At 117 for nine they were facing not just a considerable first-innings deficit but, with the prospect of a wearing pitch and good weather, defeat in the first Test.
Two hours and 14 minutes later he pulled a Stuart Broad bouncer to deep midwicket to be caught by Swann and thus deny himself, by two paltry runs, the feat, barely credible, of an Ashes hundred, in his debut innings and batting at No11. England know about such things: a little more than a year ago at Edgbaston they were reduced to open-mouthed astonishment as Tino Best, a genuine tailender, made 95 and added 143 for the last wicket with Dinesh Ramdin. It had been the highest score ever by a Test tail-end Charlie.
Agar surpassed that and, in the company of Phil Hughes who played an intelligent, understated sidekick to the younger man's ebullience, they obliterated by a dozen runs the previous record of 151 for the last wicket.
Agar had been uplifting, a lad just having fun, living the dream with not a care in the world. He drove and pulled. He belted Swann for six and then did it again for a second to go with a dozen fours.
There was a late-cut to bring the scores level so delicate he might have been patting a baby's head. He even flamingoed the magnificent Anderson through midwicket in a manner that would have brought a smile to the lips of its master, Kevin Pietersen. And as Swann took his tumbling catch, there was not a person in the ground who would have begrudged him a hundred. Agar instead just grinned endearingly.
The pair had transformed the match. They left England not with the lead they expected and without question assumed but instead 65 runs behind and by such things are sagging spirits lifted. The England bowling, so compelling while Anderson was reverse-swinging his way to five wickets, was reduced to rubble as Agar gallivanted along at a run a ball.
In mid-afternoon, in the afterglow, their Australian counterparts, so errant with the new ball in the first innings, came at England hard. Joe Root was given out caught behind for five, having feathered Mitchell Starc down the leg side, and next ball Jonathan Trott, with one full and swinging in, was caught in front.
Starc and his compatriots roared their appeal with thunderous vehemence but Aleem Dar was unmoved. Trott indicated firmly to Alastair Cook that he had managed the thinnest of edges. But Michael Clarke called for a review and, to general amazement and Dar's evident chagrin, the third umpire, Marais Erasmus, overturned the decision. Given that the square-on Hot Spot, one of the main technological arbiters for such things, was not operational for a technical reason, that Snicko (which later appeared to confirm a thin edge) is not available and that the slow-motion replay seemed to show a deviation from the bat to pad, it is hard to see, given that the protocol says there has to be conclusive evidence to overturn such a decision, why Erasmus acted as he did. By the same token, had Dar given Trott out and the batsman reviewed, that decision would also have stood.
England's wish to get clarification from the ICC is understandable. Nor was it the first error of judgment of the day from Erasmus. When Agar had made six, and the deficit was still 84, Swann's off-break turned past him, and, as he dragged his left foot forwards, Matt Prior whipped off the bails. It was a tight call, which no umpire would have given out with the naked eye, and Erasmus took an age in his assessment. But replays showed that at the moment the bails were dislodged Agar's foot was no further back than the line of the crease. And that means he was out.
It took Cook (37 not out) and Pietersen (35 not out) to bat England through the final session without further mishap, adding 69 for the third wicket so that they will resume on 80 for two, a lead of 15. To win the match England might need another 240: to be comfortable 300 more. It will be no easy task for, while the pitch does promise to become awkward, the game has moved at an alarming rate so that there is two days' wear only. Australia still hold the upper hand.
The day's first hour was extraordinary as Anderson, unable to find the orthodox swing of the previous day, reverted to reverse, removing Steve Smith first of all for 53 excellent runs and then running amok by adding Peter Siddle and Starc, not a rabbit among them, in short order while Swann turned one through Brad Haddin's gate and trapped James Pattinson leg-before.
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