“To be brutally honest, I didn’t really notice it. I was sitting out the back. So whether they were or whether they weren’t, who knows, but the old joke, the rain almost saved them again after last year,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of respect for England, I thought the series was played in a great manner throughout the whole five games.”

While England may bemoan the skies waiting to open until enough of a game had been played, they will have to look closely at the wanton squandering of their strongest platform all series.

At 2-202 in the 25th over, Harry Brook (72) and Ben Duckett (107) were in complete command against an Australian side looking cold, sore and eager for home. A tally in the 400-plus region looked likely, as Brook monstered the spin of Zampa.

But Smith and his spinners had noticed that Bristol’s short boundaries could be turned against aggressive batters because a late-season pitch was dry enough to afford plenty of deviation.

Zampa, bravely, tossed up again to Brook after being clattered for two sixes earlier in the over, and coaxed a miscue to long off that signalled a change in the game. Maxwell spun an off-break through Jamie Smith from around the wicket, before Zampa found some sharp turn and bounce to defeat the Lord’s destroyer Liam Livingstone.

Duckett was still at the crease and going well, and it was Head’s introduction that pulled the contest decisively towards Australia.

He drew a leading edge from Duckett that was taken at mid-off, beat Jacob Bethell with a classic off-spinner for Josh Inglis to make the stumping, and twirled through Brydon Carse before ending a rearguard from Adil Rashid in the final over of the innings. England had lost 8-107.

With the clouds circling, Head and Short were quick to put their stamp on the chase. Short was brutal on anything back of a length, pulling one six well and truly out of the ground. Head took 20 from the over from Will Jacks when Brook tried to mimic Smith by trying spin.

When Head clunked Carse to cover in the eighth over, the Australians were already 78. Short edged Potts behind in the 13th over but by then the score had rolled all the way to 118. Smith and Inglis kept the rate ticking nicely until England started to slow things down – too late to change the result.

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