Remorselessly and with a degree of certainty that had seemed evident from the first ball he faced, Mark Waugh, with his 19th Test century and his first in what will be his final match here at Lord's, almost certainly batted Australia to the Ashes yesterday.
To describe it as having "casual elegance" hardly does justice to an innings that had Australian, England and neutral supporters purring.
The younger of the Waugh twins made 108 before he ran himself out, beaten by Darren Gough's pick-up and throw from mid-on as he tried to steal a single. He had come in at 27 for two at a time of relative crisis with Gough and Andy Caddick bowling as well as they had done poorly in the first Test at Edgbaston. However, Waugh simply took the game by the scruff as ruthlessly as his brother Steve did in Birmingham.
Fourteen boundaries flowed from his bat, scarcely a duff one among them.
When Dominic Cork dropped one shorter and wide, he cut it away to third man like a Victorian schoolmaster clipping an errant charge round the head. But mostly he simply waited, and propped gently on his front foot before clipping the ball away to the midwicket fence. When he reached three figures with a streaky single nicked down to fine leg after a torrid time through the 90s, his relief was palpable.
England made a rod for their own backs by feeding Mark Waugh's appetite for the leg side, not just in the high-denomination currency of boundaries, but the loose coppers of singles.
Neither was it a chanceless innings, something which England will rue; for, as at Birmingham, top players cannot be allowed a second, never mind third or fourth, bidding. When at 59, he edged the final ball of the morning session to Craig White's right at gully and, although the fielder did the hard work, he could not cling on to the catch.
More fortuitously, and not England's fault, he had survived earlier when Steve Waugh, looking to get off the mark, sold him a dummy, the non-striker Mark surviving only because Mark Ramprakash's underarm throw from midwicket was deflected by his bat as he dived despairingly back to the crease.
But only in the 90s, as the magnitude of his last-chance effort began to dawn on him, was his composure ruffled as first Caddick struck the visor of his helmet, and then Cork followed in kind. It was the sort of assault that might have served better had it come with similar venom at the start of his innings.
But it is a measure of the mastery shown by Mark Waugh yesterday that no other player in the match has thus far made batting look anything other than tough hewing, although Damien Martyn (24 not out) and Adam Gilchrist (10 not out) may make England pay this morning when Australia resume on 255 for five, a lead of 68.
At the start Gough and Caddick had responded superbly with the new ball. Caddick slanting his fifth ball across Matthew Hayden to have him caught at second slip and Gough finding something for Ricky Ponting that spat from a length.
Significantly, Michael Slater was bottled up so effectively he scratched around for almost two hours for his 25 before he swatted at the first ball of a new spell from Caddick and was caught at the wicket. Later Steve Waugh was caught down the leg side for 45 as he fended off Cork's bouncer.
If the afternoon belonged to Mark Waugh, though, the morning boasted a Glenn McGrath masterclass that sent England tumbling from their overnight 121 for four to 187 all out.
Thus Alec Stewart, without scoring, and Graham Thorpe had been dismissed inside five overs and not long after White, also without scoring, gave McGrath his fifth wicket.
Only with the appearance of the irritant Cork did McGrath lose his cool, descend into shortness and pay the price as the all-rounder and Ian Ward (23) added 47 for the eighth wicket. In the end, Steve Waugh had to call up Jason Gillespie to retore some sanity which he did by having Cork brilliantly caught.
Shane Warne then mopped up the tail. McGrath added five for 54 and is on a mission for 10 in the match. England beware.
