By late afternoon, as the sky began to fill in optimistically pewter in colour, each run was being cheered. Boundary futures were soaring on the Stock Exchange as shrewd investors piled in before it closed for the holiday. When Pietersen hit the first boundary in 14 overs, his fourth, to reach his slowest ever Ashes half-century, from 124 balls, there was close to uproar: novelty has its value. When, on Pietersen's demise to Mitchell Starc shortly afterwards, Chris Woakes then drove his first ball in Test cricket handsomely to the square cover boundary, it might have been a World Cup winner at Wembley or VE Day with hats thrown in the air.
These were the crumbs of comfort on which a sell-out crowd were fed.