Won't matter now, but if the result had gone the other way, Vaughan's decision to bat for a few overs after Flintoff's departure might have come in for close scrutiny. Have England had anyone who was simultaneously a top-class player and top-class captain since.... Illingworth?? May??? Someone in the Border class, I mean. I was expecting Stewart to carry it off - a magnificent batsman on his day, even though he's a southerner, and in the field he was in the best place to skipper from. Yet somehow it didn't pan out.

All in all, a cracking series. We seem to have had a few in recent years, not foretting the last SA tour.