The game should be this way.
Nine women crowded around the bat, along with the bowler guarding the non-striker's end. A field filled with people. The last batting pair at the crease are too nervous to do much. A couple of deliveries separated Australia win, England win, tie, and draw.
England had a chance to pull off the biggest and boldest run chase in women's Test cricket history. The cold, hard statistics show that the match was one of the closest finishes the game has produced. The ground told you that it was one of the best.
There were things that could have been different. Australia bet that England could not chase 257 runs in 48 overs and set up the finish with a declaration challenge. With little left to lose in the multi-format series, England had to take up that challenge.
Things would have been different if administrators had allocated these matches five days instead of four. It would be different again if rain hadn't wiped out most of the third day. Australia could have set a bigger target with more time to spare if they had made more runs.
What was done was done. Both teams had what they had in front of them. A score to target or a score to defend, with the hope that the final score would stay together or fall apart. The contest turned into something great.
The concerted effort by England to attack instead of waiting for the match to end was plain. Tammy began it. She took it into the dying hours of the longest form, so often England's aggressor in the shorter formats. She picked off boundaries as she dominated the opening stand.
When she was out with the score on 92, the stage was set for Heather Knight and NatSciver.
The Australians panicked when the required total was reduced to double figures. Boundary riders were recalled as the field changed by the delivery. The over was making bowling changes. The three-and-a-half day game between Australia and England looked like it was from England.
The sun broke through beneath the clouds that had smothered the Test. The air was sticky around everybody invested in every ball, as the humidity rose in tandem with the tension. The middle of the ground must have felt like a slow cooker.
Knight andSciver fell within a half-century of each other. England seemed to have lost their cool. The crowd cheered wide leg-side deliveries because they didn't concede a run.
The chance to win or lose one was exciting for two teams that rarely get to play Test cricket.
The less experienced players may have found ways to influence the game. Sophia Dunkley was not told that Test players don't hit two sixes in a row in a chase. Annabel and Alana were not afraid to bowl because they had little scar tissue from previous failures.
It wasn't all calm and control. It was England that looked uncertain whenSciver fell. Amy Jones tried to hit Dunkley when she only needed to hit a single, but left her partner with the tail.
Messages were not taken out to encourage those in the middle to take a deep breath. The only cool was shown by Australia's Beth Mooney, broken jaw forgotten, as she took one of the bravest catches the game has seen when Dunkley tried to keep going.
The game could have gone either way. A few sweet blows from England's lower order, a lucky inside edge or a flying nick could have changed things. But Australia's captain Meg Lanning stationed a fielder to save the outside edge, and the wickets kept falling until it was England who were struggling to hold on.
As the last ball of the match came down, a full toss from debutant leg-spinner King, England's number 11 Kate Cross must have dreamed of putting it over the rope. She did the team thing and patted it into the ground because England would have been six runs short of the win.
Both sides had a victory, but they also had a fear of losing.
Maybe the right result was reached. Australia did not have to set a target for England. England did not have to go after it.
The finish had to be engineered because of the constraints under which women's Test matches are played.
The context for a while did not matter to those who watched it, soaked in anxiety and elation right down to that final ball. The contest was all that mattered.
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