THE TRUE TEST

Forget defeat and forget the white-ball game, this was cricket at its absolute finest... the peak of sporting competition and excitement

- BY MIKE WALTERS @MikeWaltersMGM

LOOK beyond the heartbreak of defeat by only a six-hit at The Oval and dry your eyes.

England's agony, in an unrivalled 56 minutes of spine-tingling drama and hiding behind the sofa, nailed the lie that Test cricket could ever be eclipsed as a spectacle by the confected theatre of The Hundred.

As the sloggers' convention which has hijacked the school summer holidays begins at Lord's today with the Spirit and Invincibles, whoever they are, none of the hired hands haggling over 16.4 overs of bragging rights will come close. No teeing off in kits promoting crisps will come within a million miles of one-arm bandit Chris Woakes' 16-minute defiance beyond the call of duty in the final Rothesay Test.

No fireworks, screeching pop music interludes or contrived razzmatazz will knock spots off England's bravest last stand since Colin Cowdrey marched out to face West Indian pace terrors Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith with his broken arm in plaster at Lord's in 1963.