THERE was a guard of honour from the Aussies and an embrace with his old mate Jimmy Anderson.

There was an extensive video highlights reel, a journey through his photo album and even a mighty six over midwicket from his final ball in Test cricket.

All that was missing was a Stuart Broad wicket. Or any England wicket. Or barely even a sniff of one.

So, amid all the applause and emotion and sentimentality, Australia took a decisive step towards winning their first Ashes series on English soil in 22 years by a decisive margin of 3-1.

Had somebody forgotten there was still a Test match to win, a series to be squared and a moral victory to be claimed?

Broad is one of England’s cricketers of all time – a fire-starting, crowd-pleasing, ultra-competitive cricketer, who has saved most of his greatest moments for these hostilities against the Aussies.

And while nobody would begrudge the fanfare of a proper send-off, the timing of the announcement of Broad’s retirement on Saturday evening appeared curiouser and curiouser as this truncated fourth day went on.

Having played themselves into a dominant position in this final Test at The Oval, England were suddenly lacking focus, intent and menace as Broad’s supposed bunny David Warner and Usman Khawaja piled up the first century opening partnership in an Ashes match since 2017.

The Aussies require 249 more runs today, so England might yet sneak home in another nail-biter.

But after an unbroken partnership of 135, the momentum is back with the tourists and it is difficult not to feel that the benefit-match atmosphere of this peculiar day was a large part of the reason.

As Broad and Anderson, England’s final pair, went out at the start of the day to conclude England’s second innings, the Australians lined up to applaud the retiring 37-year-old.

They were softening them up, killing them with kindness.

Even England’s over-and-a-half of batting were distinctly weird, with both men refusing singles and Broad’s mighty heave for a maximum off Mitchell Starc the only scoring shot before Todd Murphy trapped Anderson leg-before.

When Broad and Anderson re-emerged to open the bowling, defending a target of 384, there was precious little of the fire and brimstone which has seen them amass an astonishing 1,292 Test victims between them.

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Warner – dismissed 18 times by Broad – scampered a single off an inside edge from Broad’s decent opening delivery but after that the 37-year-old rarely threatened, spearing far too many balls down the leg side.

The contrast between what was happening in the middle and that career-highlights compilation played on The Oval’s big screens – including Broad’s Ashes-winning bursts at The Oval in 2009, Durham in 2013 and Trent Bridge in 2015 – was stark.

Warner drove his nemesis for four from the final ball of his opening over and rarely looked back.

Broad was hauled out of the attack by Ben Stokes after just three overs as sentiment abated.

Anderson, as so often in this series, was serving up popgun stuff on his 41st birthday and Khawaja took him from 11 in a single over.

Before Mark Wood finally joined the attack in the 33rd over, we’d seen Moeen Ali struggling to bowl with a groin injury and plenty of Joe Root’s part-time off-breaks.

Root had even twice attempted Broad’s superstitious trick of switching the bails around in an attempt to bring a wicket, before England unleashed the 90mph bowler who strikes fear into the Aussies.

It almost seems like sacrilege to criticise Stokes these days but this felt like a bizarre piece of captaincy – and his Bazball regime may end up with England’s worst result in a home Ashes since 2001.

At lunchtime a couple of long-serving cricket photographers guided the crowd through some of their favourite snaps of Broad in an interview on the big screens.

There was Broad in front of Ayers Rock in a cowboy hat; there he was having his face rearranged by a Varun Aaron bouncer and there he was posing topless with Anderson.

They stopped just short of showing a photo of Broad tenderly caressing a newborn kitten but after all this, Anderson went out and bowled a shoulder-high beamer at Warner, who neatly deflected it for four.

Wood arrived belatedly and brought a welcome burst of hostility, denting Khawaja’s batting helmet with a vicious bouncer, before the rain arrived midway through the afternoon session and washed out the remainder of the day.

But Warner and Khawaja have already shared the longest stand of the entire series and they are back for more today.

So perhaps England might put Broad’s leaving do on hold for a few hours and get back to trying to beat these Australians at cricket.