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Before the off bail of Alastair Cook had hit the ground one could sense the first rumblings of the inevitable hue and cry. Cook had been dismissed first ball for the first time in his Test career and England were on the rack.
No matter that he fell to a superb delivery from Ryan Harris, this was hardly the fairytale outcome in his 100th Test for England. No matter that Cook had scored more than his opposite number by a margin of 25 runs in this match, it was Michael Clarke, also in his 100th Test, who was doing all the smiling at the Waca.
Clarke was guffawing much of the time, especially when the ball kept disappearing into the stands in the morning or when it fell between Jimmy Anderson and Ian Bell, who ended up staring at one another in disbelief. If their faces had not been so ruddy from a mixture of searing sunshine and exhaustion, we might have witnessed a pair of English veterans blushing.
Then there was the sight of Clarke declaring the innings closed again, an operation currently unfamiliar to Cook, whereupon the Australia captain serenely took to the slips to oversee his bowlers striving to retrieve the Ashes at the earliest opportunity.
Perhaps after 100 Tests Clarke has become a national hero. He won over a few doubters at the start of the series, when he could be heard threatening Anderson with a certain old-fashioned Australian eloquence. For the majority it has been his silky runs, his inventive captaincy and the imminent return of the Ashes that have made him so popular way beyond the city-slicker suburbs of Sydney.
This is quite a transformation. Nine months ago in India, Clarke was at the heart of the homework saga and in a management regime that no longer connected with the team. Here was a most un-Australian response to an under-performing pack of players. Then Darren Lehmann was parachuted in and his primary concern was to bring a captain, who was growing ever more remote, back to the players.
Australia improved despite losing in England but mid-afternoon in Brisbane with the hosts 132 for six and Clarke bounced out for a single the knives were sharpening again. Since then he has batted brilliantly and led intuitively, almost as well as Shane Warne would have us believe. He has even became a masterful exponent of DRS. He is unlikely to forget his 100th Test in a hurry.
Cook might like to and there may be some knives out for him, particularly those adherents of Warne, who praises Clarke as readily as he buries Cook.
The captain carries the can and night England were on the brink of surrendering the Ashes. After three Tests Cook was 612 runs short of the number he acquired here on the last tour of Australia, the burden of the captaincy growing ever heavier.
Inevitably his captaincy skills, as well as his run-scoring, are being questioned. Suddenly the selection is awry, his outlook too conservative, too boring. His field placements are all wrong too: not enough slips, not enough third men. Like many a losing captain the problem was "not enough fielders".
Most of this is nonsense; the trigger reaction in defeat, especially against Australia, is to find a scapegoat as soon as possible and the captain is often the first port of call. England's conservative, boring captain opted to lead out a five-man, two-spinner attack in Adelaide as well as handing a debut to the youngster, Ben Stokes, which is beginning to look like a handy decision.
As for those field placements it is tough to have an array of close catchers with the batsmen on the rampage and the ball disappearing to the boundary. Many years ago Graham Yallop, leading a Packered Australia side in 1977-78, kept promising aggression and packed the slip cordon against England, earning the nickname "Banzai". The tourists took the series 5‑1. Cook is more of a pragmatist.
There is an unlikely parallel with another Australia captain. Allan Border and Cook do not have much in common – though both are left handed, played for Essex and found that they could excel at Test level with just three attacking shots. Border took on the captaincy of Australia at a tricky time in 1984 and did it – sometimes reluctantly – for almost 10 years. They might have sacked him after the 1985 Ashes drubbing or the 1986-7 defeat.
Out of necessity they stuck with him (he would lead Australia in 93 of his 156 Tests) and after a very long struggle they found the light.
Cook has started much better than Border though unlike him, he is encumbered by having to open after agonising spells in the field, which is proving a problem at the moment. The Englishman does not look or sound as tough as Border, who was probably not a choirboy in his youth, yet all the evidence of a 100-Test career suggests that he is.
There will have to be changes after this Ashes tour but not to the captaincy. Forgive me for not joining the hue and cry. Cook will be fundamental to any England recovery.
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