Darren Lehmann cut a solitary figure late in the afternoon session at Lord's. The dressing- room balcony doors were shut, and he sat outside on his own on a bench, contemplating the shambles unfolding before him and perhaps wondering precisely what it was into which he had got himself.
Maybe he has managed to instil a little self-belief and discipline into an outfit that had sunk almost to the level of anarchy under the previous regime. It may well be that in the team selections he has managed to cobble together the best he can with the resources available.
But he must be familiar with the old saw about silk purses and sows' ears. Close the first Test may have been, but a side that rely on the last wicket to produce a substantial part of their runs are on the fast road to nowhere. His team look shot with the bat, in utter disarray mentally and technically.
In front of another packed house, in pristine weather, Australia contrived to produce a batting display of such startling ineptitude that as Lehmann sat and watched gloomily, they lost, from the final delivery of the morning session to an hour after tea, all their wickets for 86 runs, 24 of those coming for the last wicket, the second-highest stand of the innings. Having been splattered around first thing by Stuart Broad and Grame Swann, and then added 42 for the first wicket in response to England's 361, it constituted one of their worst Ashes days in this country. It was certainly the worst since Melbourne last time, when they were dismissed on the first morning for 98 and then saw Andrew Strauss and Alestair Cook add 157 without loss by the close.
With a lead of 233, a pitch offering sufficient spin already for Swann to complete his 16th five-wicket haul in Tests, and a forecast set fair, any temptation to enforce the follow-on was easily resisted. The idea is to win a Test match rather than a race: given the time available you do not play around with even the remotest possibility of chasing a target on the last day.
It left England 20 overs to bat, which they failed to do without mishap, losing Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen, all to Peter Siddle, before Joe Root and Tim Bresnan saw them to the close at 31 for three, sufficient already in all likelihood but with the pot still bubbling.