Oh I hope so. We are so close.

From the Sporting Life:

It is difficult to imagine a fitting climax to this special sporting contest, which has eclipsed anything seen in this country for decades.

Multiply Italia ’90 by Euro ’96 by the’93 Ryder Cup by Redgrave’s fifth gold in Sydney. Cube it and you’re not even close.

So, as much as it would be tempting for a partial Ashes correspondent to implore the heavens to open so Michael Vaughan can take the urn away on a speedboat with the other 10 players forming a pyramid on water-skies behind, we are hoping for one last exhibition of pure competition.

This is one of those days when productivity in the UK hits an all-new trough as the nation’s workers spend the day praying and anxiously eyeing a discreetly minimised browser window.