Now it’s official. Stuart Broad really does write his own scripts. How else to explain the extraordinary finale to a quite incredible Ashes on his last day in Test cricket.
It was 6.25pm on the pulsating final day of the fifth Test after 24 days of gripping drama when Broad took Alex Carey’s edge and saw the ball nestle in Jonny Bairstow’s gloves.
The last of Broad’s 604 Test wickets had given England their rightful share of this tumultuous series and sent one of their greatest bowlers off into a golden sunset.
How perfect it was that Broad should have the final word and how typical of the man to make the decisive intervention in the best Ashes series since 2005.
Broad had the penultimate word, too, when he took the wicket of Todd Murphy just as Australia had perhaps begun to believe they could gate-crash his retirement party.
England won the fifth Test by 49 runs to give Stuart Broad a perfect send-off for his retirement
Alex Carey was caught behind off the bowling of Broad as England drew the Ashes series 2-2
Broad sent The Oval into pandemonium after he claimed the final two wickets of the match
The bowler’s family react after watching his Test career come to a fairytale end on Monday
Among those watching Broad at the Oval was his dad and former England batter Chris Broad
Broad was joined by his partner Mollie King and their daughter on the pitch after the game
Broad made the most of the special moments on the pitch with his family as he said farewell
King – who is engaged to Broad – waited for the bowler with their daughter Annabella
The trio spent some time to take in the occasion after Broad ended his career in fine fashion
The 37-year-old then posed with King, 36, and Annabella for his final time as an England player
Australia needed 55 more of their target of 384 with eight down and minds were drifting back to the first Test at Edgbaston when their last two wickets added the same number to seize victory and set up what was to become their retention of the urn.
But that was when Broad produced more theatre by indulging in his new party trick of switching the bails round at the non-striker’s end – ‘I thought it was an Australian good luck thing,’ he insisted afterwards – and then took Murphy’s wicket with his very next delivery. Who writes his scripts indeed, as Graham Gooch once asked of Ian Botham.
How perfect it was, too, that Broad should lead England off arm in arm with Moeen Ali, called out of retirement as an emergency replacement for Jack Leach ahead of this Ashes and now defying injury to play his own leading role in what became a 49-run victory.
Now Moeen will head back to white-ball cricket – surely even Ben Stokes can’t talk him into touring India in January – after taking three wickets on Monday despite the groin strain that has restricted his movement since the first day.
The result meant England captain Ben Stokes and Australia’s Pat Cummins shared the trophy
Broad made his way off the pitch with one of the stumps after the thrilling end to the Test
The 36-year-old was given a hero’s send-off by a rapturous Oval crowd after the game ended
England fans made sure to show their appreciation for Broad who ended with 604 Test wickets
But if Broad and Moeen shared the limelight then it was a man so often under-estimated in Chris Woakes who was the key figure on Monday, just as he has been even since he made his belated introduction to this series in the third Test at Headingley.
Not only did Woakes take four wickets but he claimed the most important of them in Steve Smith to the huge relief as well as delight of England’s captain.
It was one of four Australian dismissals in just 19 balls after another lengthy rain break that propelled England towards their share of this series before Broad and Moeen pounced.
Most importantly, it was the wicket that ensured a freak incident involving the captain would not be responsible for what would have been the huge injustice of a 3-1 victory to Australia and their first Ashes series success in England in 22 years.
At the centre of it was Smith, still the biggest Australian scalp and a batsman averaging close to a hundred at this famous old south London ground.
The last Test and this tumultuous series were very much in the balance when the former Australian captain gloved Moeen, and saw the ball balloon towards Stokes at leg slip.
The captain rose to grab it above his head but as he regained his balance and perhaps shaped to throw the ball up in celebration the ball flicked his leg and fell to the ground.
England produced a stunning final session after heavy rain had delayed play for two hours
Australia retained the Ashes despite the final Test defeat, having won the previous series 4-0
Cue confusion as umpire Joel Wilson remained unmoved, Stokes looked sheepish knowing deep down what he had done, and England eventually called for a review not being quite sure whether their captain had been in control of the ball before it dropped to safety.
Stokes clearly did not have full control of either the ball or his body and Smith, who had somehow survived a controversial run-out incident in the first innings, escaped on 39 and with Australia then just 147 away from their target of 384 with seven wickets in hand.
Just to add salt to Stokes wounds, he not only had to stew over the incident during lunch but for a further two hours as rain came to threaten this finale just as it did with England almost certain to claim victory last week at Old Trafford.
When Stokes was asked before this Test whether he regretted anything from the opening two defeats that ultimately cost England the urn he said ‘just dropping Nathan Lyon at Edgbaston.’ That was the toughest of chances but now one of the safest catchers in world cricket looked likely to have erred again and dropped a share of this Ashes series.
Thankfully for both Stokes and England there was to be one more twist in a series full of the most sublime cricketing drama from the moment Crawley smashed the very first ball at Edgbaston from Pat Cummins to the cover fence.
When play finally resumed at 4.20pm Australia had a whopping 52 overs – it was soon reduced to 47 because the umpires had miscalculated – to get the remaining 146 they needed with Smith and Travis Head at the crease. They were just about favourites.
There was drama when Ben Stokes lost control of the ball after catching Steve Smith
It almost cost England but Player of the Series Chris Woakes got him for 54 after the rain break
The game was the perfect ending to what has been a legendary career for the England bowler
Australia had started the last day needing another 249 with all wickets intact and their former captain Ricky Ponting chuntering in the Sky commentary box about the ball England were using that was changed on Sunday night and was swinging and seaming much more than the old one.
There was certainly lavish movement with it for Woakes, who quickly claimed David Warner for the fourth successive time and soon followed it by sending back Usman Khawaja.
When Mark Wood, who had damaged his left heel during his brief involvement on Sunday, had Marnus Labuschagne edging to Crawley England were on top but Smith and Head, helped by Stokes faux pas, added 95 and Australia were able to breathe again.
But the hopes of Australia’s modern greats of finally winning that elusive first series in England were soon in tatters and Cummins was left to lift the urn in low-key and deflated fashion after what must surely be a hollow triumph.
Only two days of Manchester rain stopped England pulling off the greatest Ashes comeback of them all and it is crying shame this was not an Ashes decider. That really would have put even the fabled 2005 victory in the shade.
This has still been an Ashes series for the ages and one that has breathed life into the grand old game when it is under attack like never before from the rise of the T20 franchises. It is one that has surely inspired more new spectators to the game than a gimmicky new format like the Hundred, which now claims the cricketing stage for the whole of August with indecent haste, ever could.
And it is an Ashes series that no-one who followed it will ever forget. Not least Stuart Broad who, in front of his family, scripted the best goodbye of them all.