In Queen's Gardens, the beautiful park that adjoins the Waca, there is a statue of Peter Pan, a replica of the one in Kensington Gardens in London, and the buzzing crowd that strolled out of the ground and past it into a crystal evening yesterday must have wondered whether this was not indeed Never Never Land.
On a pitch the like of which is not to be found anywhere else in the world, this match proceeded at such breakneck speed that had it not been for a wonderful riposte from Graeme Hick as the shadows lengthened, and the best part of three hours of diligence from Mark Ramprakash, the whole thing might have been done and dusted inside two days.
England finished the day on 126 for five in their second innings, still two runs from making Australia bat again. In the circumstances it represented a recovery of almost heroic proportions after the three Australian pacemen, Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and above all Damien Fleming, had sent England tumbling to 112 all out in 39 overs.
Australia, 150 for three overnight and with Mark Waugh already entrenched, had then ground their way to 194 at lunch for the loss only of the nightwatchman Gillespie - just 44 runs from 30 overs.
The second new ball taken one over into the afternoon, a mysterious and foolhardy change of gear by the Australians, and the emergence of a young cricketer of genuine star quality turned things round.
Alex Tudor had got his chance to play here by the skin of his teeth, a talent bursting to let rip but destined to be stifled, it seemed, by intransigence within the selection panel. Had he not played on this of all grounds, England would have left Australia wondering what might have been. Now we know.
From the members' end, and into what breeze the Fremantle Doctor had prescribed, Tudor, wicketless thus far, hustled in like the young Ian Bishop reincarnate and at genuine express pace took four for 25 in 21 balls - Steve Waugh beaten by sheer pace and bowled; Mark Waugh squared up and caught low down at third slip; Ricky Ponting caught at the wicket off a snorter that screamed past his chest; and McGrath the perk at the end.
At the other end Darren Gough, devoid of luck on this tour but with a soulmate now, puffed out his chest and ripped in to take two wickets.
Six Australia wickets tumbled in 55 uproarious minutes of the most heartening adrenalin-powered bowling from an England strike force operating in tandem since the days of Willis and Botham. A lead of 128, then, where it might have been more.
The England second innings began as disastrously as the first, for with the pitch picking up even more pace on the second day, Fleming - Test-best figures of five for 46 in the first innings - removed Mark Butcher, Nasser Hussain and Alec Stewart inside 10 overs before tea and added the wicket of Mike Atherton after the interval.
Playing courageously and with intent, Atherton contributed all but five of the 40 runs scored while he was at the crease, twice hooking his nemesis McGrath to the square boundary and hitting four more boundaries besides. His dismissal, a blameless one, and the tame one of John Crawley, a short-leg victim of Colin Miller in his off-spin guise, seemed to have settled things.
Instead Hick, in the side only because of Graham Thorpe's back injury, and out to a second-ball duck in the first innings, played thunderously. His first ball from Miller was lashed through point and when Mark Taylor then turned to Gillespie, putting Hick in the crucible once more, the first bouncer was top-edged uncontrollably over the wicketkeeper Ian Healy.
When Gillespie changed ends to come downwind, however, Hick murdered him, pulling his first delivery high over mid-wicket for six, cutting the next ball for four and pulling the third for six again. In all 23 runs came from the over, and by the day's end Hick had made 42 from only 33 balls - already the second-highest score of the game after Taylor's 61 - and he and Ramprakash (26 not out) had added 59 in 11 overs for the sixth wicket.
