It was the 2094th Test, and never before had the equation been 227 off 44 overs. It was fairly similar at Centurion in 2000 but then Hansie Cronje, South Africa’s captain, was fixed on not drawing the game.
So at the Oval theatre, the last act of this series had no script. The coaches could not tell their players anything of specific relevance from their experience. The players could not be programmed.
And such uncertainty on a late August evening, born of Michael Clarke’s daring declaration, riveted all concerned. At the end of an over when the PA announcer tried to tell the crowd about the ceremonies that would take place at the finish, such was the clapping, cheering and chanting that not one of his words was audible.
It was drama - and, better still, the drama of the first-night play, when none of the audience knows the outcome. Or rather, best of all, a play in which nobody - neither the audience nor the actors - knows what the outcome will be.
Kevin Pietersen did his best to script the finish. When he came in, England wanted 141 runs from the last 145 balls of the series, although there was always the likelihood that fading light would shave off a few overs.
Cometh the hour, cometh the showman. Pietersen feels good at the Oval: not only his breakthrough innings of 158 in 2005, but his first Test here as captain when he made a century against South Africa, and won. He not only averages more than 60 runs per innings here but, thanks to some pace in the pitch, four runs per over.
During his 55 balls, Pietersen could hardly have done more to recreate the magic of his innings eight years ago. But there was one difference between then and now. This Australian side have not been able to bat like their predecessors, or bowl Shane Warne, but their ground-fielding has been superlative.
In 2005 Pietersen was dropped more than once when the match was far from safe. On Sunday evening the first time he hit the ball towards a fielder, he was caught by David Warner at long-on.
Jonathan Trott had contributed 13 to their partnership of 77 and, being mortal, could not accelerate as his partner had. The next two Warwickshire players, Ian Bell and Chris Woakes, stayed on course to knock off the runs in 44 overs, but not in the 40 overs that approaching autumn allowed, before the script decreed the curtain should come down.
Before Pietersen, England’s captain Alastair Cook had found some fluency for the first time in this series. Even though he did not ‘go on’, once again, Cook did enough - in addition to his conscientious captaincy - to merit being one of the opening batsman in a composite eleven made up of these two sides.
Chris Rogers, though demoted on Sunday, would be Cook’s partner. Shane Watson was man of this match for his 176, and he can bowl better than Trott. Watson’s spell last evening was wicketless, as usual, yet invaluable.
Pietersen’s conversation with Michael Clarke, when they partner each other at four and five, would be worth turning up the stump-mike for. And when one of them runs the other out, there is always Bell to make another hundred.
Brad Haddin’s record feat, of making the most dismissals in any Test series, was overlooked in the closing ceremonies: no wonder wicketkeepers are used to being neglected. Haddin made his 29 catches off nine different bowlers, but most of them - nine - off Ryan Harris.
Harris, the bustling bull-dog with no bite, took 24 wickets in only four Tests. He and James Anderson would be a pace attack to avoid, backed by Stuart Broad who improved as the series went on, whereas Peter Siddle faded.
And who else but Graeme Swann, the leading wicket-taker with 26, to be the spinner? Didn’t he love being in control?
Composite XI: Cook, Rogers, Watson, Pietersen, Clarke (capt), Bell, Haddin, Broad, Swann, Harris and Anderson.
