In a showcase on the elevated floor of the iconic Melbourne stadium sits a neon pink ensemble donned by the pop star. The performance in front of 100,024 attendees was seen as a major hit.
It's possible you like the performer. Maybe you feel he is the finest offering to music in history. You might take a balanced view, acknowledging that some tracks are excellent while others are terrible.
The central idea is that entertainment can be delivered diversely. Tastes vary. There is no universal formula to produce music or even Test cricket.
The Peerless Spectrum of The Test Format
Test cricket boasts incomparable variety. It is hard to think of another sport where the contest is so dictated by external factors.
The weather, the hour of play, the ball – the factors are countless. Above all is the wicket.
If Test cricket is a form of art, the wicket is the blank slate on which the cricketers create their art.
A Broken-Down Battle: The Melbourne Spectacle
The fourth Ashes Test between the two sides was Test cricket cubism, the traditional sport broken apart and reassembled in abstract form.
This is not a defence of the pitch which yielded a triumph and the second two-day Test of the Ashes battle.
Allowing 10mm of grass on the pitch, resulting in numerous dismissals being taken in less than six sessions, is not a balanced duel between bat and ball.
A Rich Tapestry: The Core of Test Cricket
But any suggestion this was a diminished spectacle, one that should be footnoted as illegitimate, is incorrect.
The format is a rich tapestry, 2,615 parts and counting. Sometimes, like in Melbourne, the ball does all sorts for the fast men. Sometimes, it turns square on a spinning track. At other venues, the pitch is dead, other times it spits like a cobra.
The thrillers are all the more thrilling owing to the time made in other matches.
Adaptation: The Real Challenge
Specific conditions are embraced more freely than others.
The debate in Melbourne was that the balance was skewed excessively towards the fielding side. That the skilled individuals were prevented from demonstrating their skill.
This level of cricket is about problem solving – interpreting the conditions and responding effectively. The top two individual contributions were made by world-class stars. One line-up committed more errors than the other, and thus lost.
Pure Elation: The Fan Perspective
Try telling the supporters who have suffered years of defeat that this was not entertaining.
Among the crowd of the ground, a sea of people waved their flags and chanted, fostering a festive mood in a stronghold of Australian cricket.
There was optimism as the attack surged, advantage when players fought back, and unconditional love when the result was achieved.
Extreme Ends: The Spectrum of Test Matches
The venue has previous experience with pitch problems. Eight years ago, a game there featured a strip with the excitement of a a non-event.
That fixture was a slog, with few wickets and interminable tedium. This recent match and that slow Test are extreme ends of the spectrum – neither perfect, yet value can be found in each.
At this stage into the current series, it is the quick finishes that will live longest in the collective consciousness.
"It's not the demise of the format at all," said a former player. "The people who have been lucky enough to see these short time have been treated to some real entertainment. Different entertainment."
Baby Steps: Building for the Future
In the build-up to this match, the skipper spoke like a man carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.
The squad delivered for him, bringing back the joy to his face.
Emerging talents stepped up with vital performances. These are incremental gains, hardly enough to guarantee long-term success, but a foundation to develop from.
In the end, this triumph joins other historic performances in dead rubbers.
As the supporters departed into a stunning sunset, the squad congregated on the outfield to commence their own festivities.
Savour the moment, boys. This victory was hard-fought.
