After all the pre-match talk of ultra-soft underbellies, England’s batsmen gave a pretty sound impression of a hardened top-six across an absorbing bout of old-world Test cricket dominated by the guts and fortitude of Rory Burns.

They will resume on day three 17 runs adrift with six wickets in hand, with Burns unbeaten and Ben Stokes, who played supremely in the last session to see off the swinging old ball and blunt the shiny new one, picking up on 38. While Australia’s bowlers will be baffled by the paucity of their rewards, and their magnanimity towards Burns may be stretched by the cold, hard details of 38 play-and-misses and 29 edges, this is not the time for balance or caution. Today was one for the romantics.

In the evening session, as he scrabbled up towards some version of a sporting reckoning, Burns went 37 minutes without scoring a run. He then played and missed four times in two overs as he staggered through the nineties, before, just like that, he got a fine glance away (he’s a world class leg glancer), and eyed a single to mid-on.

The shy from the fielder hit the one stump available, but by then Burns had made his ground. He’d crossed the line, and made it in one piece. An Ashes century. A lifetime’s work. He will go again tomorrow.