If you ask any English cricket fan to name his or her top ten test matches, they will almost certainly name a goodly number of English victories over Australia. Their list would probably include “Botham’s match”, played at Headingley in 1981, England’s victory by three runs at Melbourne in 1982-83, their two-run thriller at Edgbaston in 2005, and Ben stokes’ triumph, also played at Headingley, in 2019. They might also consider England’s two-wicket win over the West Indies at Lord’s in 2000, the only match to date in which all four innings featured in a single day, or the match in Karachi later that year, when Graham Thorpe hit the winning runs, almost in the dark.

One wouldn’t argue with a fan picking any or all of those six matches. They were all fabulous games of cricket, which could have gone either way.

But would they consider the test match which has just concluded at Edgbaston? One suspects that they would not, although, quite frankly, they should.

We have just been treated to five days of incredible cricket. Five absorbing days when Fortune’s tide ebbed and flowed for both teams. Five days of disciplined bowling, exhilarating batting, disciplined fielding, fascinating captaincy, poor judgment, and missed chances. Five days in which twenty-two men had their characters, mental resilience, and physical stamina well and truly tested. The Australians were victorious, but only just. It was certainly a disappointment for the England players and their supporters, but what a wonderful contest.

People have been unfairly critical of the England captain, Ben Stokes and his so-called “Bazball” tactics. They forget that since he assumed the captaincy last year, that England have won eleven of the fourteen test matches they’ve played. Its has been exciting stuff, even if it hasn’t always come off for the English.

Not only cricket fans, but followers of all sports, need to recognise that although the enjoyment of triumphs is a wonderful thing, the acceptance of disasters is necessary. If you can’t bare the pain of your team being beaten, how can you properly enjoy its victories? This is something I had to come to terms with a long time ago, as a supporter of Worcestershire County Cricket Club. Their most glorious years, during my boyhood, are long gone. They might return one day. In the meantime, I shall have to enjoy any victories that occur, and just as importantly, any good matches, regardless of the result.

But back to international cricket. There are another four tests to go in this, the latest battle for the Ashes. That’s a maximum of twenty days. If those twenty days of Anglo-Australian cricket are as absorbing as the previous five, we will truly have been treated to a wonderful contest. Do I want England to win back the Ashes? Of course I do. And the English should play the way they have been for the last year. It might come off. And if it doesn’t, the Australians must know that they have been in a proper contest. If the men wearing the Baggy Green want to retain the Ashes, the men wearing the three lions should force them to earn the urn. And of course, vice versa.