Geoff Lemon's Ashes Diary: After the high, here's the comedown

It’s hard to know how to respond after a match like that. The nervous tension, expectation, hope and disbelief that have built over several days are resolved, and in their absence your world is abruptly flat.

Kids heading home from all-nighters, pupils constricting as music fades from their heads, know all about comedowns.

There’s the native euphoria of intoxicants, and the feeling of community derived from shared interest.

But everything is finite, and when eventually you have to leave you are alone once more, battling home through callous morning light in an outside world that will never understand what you’ve just experienced.

This Test has been a privilege to watch. Quite aside from the exceptional welcome we’ve had from Brits far and wide, we got to see and report on things that will certainly become part of Ashes folklore.

That hope of which I wrote yesterday hung around, flickering, all through the morning session, its half hour extension, and the break for lunch. When Brad Haddin’s edge was confirmed, I had been hoping for so long I didn’t know how to accept disappointment.

Comparisons with the famous run chase of Edgbaston 2005 were already being made the night before, as Ashton Agar made it to stumps with Haddin. They were far more apt this morning, after Mitchell Starc’s wicket left 100 to score and with eight wickets down.

As the chase ticked on, I abandoned any pretension to journalistic impartiality and discreetly celebrated each run. Our English counterparts were scarcely any less parochial. The last-wicket partnership began with 80 still needed.

We found it hard to believe as that score came below 50, then 40, then 30. At lunch it was 20. It was only after the break, as it began to dip into the teens, that I started to think we would actually get there.

Haddin, often a target of my mirth for his batting decisions, played an exceptional hand. When he took three boundaries from a Steven Finn over you could feel the mood at the ground change with abruptness.

He was lucky to be dropped at deep midwicket a little later, but quick runs were needed to try to get the target down. It was only Haddin’s last shot that could be questioned, with the 14 remaining runs probably attainable with more discreet strokeplay.

Still, the quality of the entertainment and the closeness of the result can’t be allowed to hide Australia’s problems. The batting remains incredibly frail.

228 of Australia’s runs this match came from their two last-wicket partnerships. One more half century from anyone in the top order would have made the win almost comfortable.

Both innings saw four of the top six failed to register much of a contribution. Shane Watson played like Shane Watson: an early nick first time round, a nearly-there score the second. Ed Cowan, battling illness, seemed to think No. 3 required mimicking a different batsman. Michael Clarke couldn’t contribute.

Steve Smith, Phil Hughes, Haddin and Chris Rogers all scored well one innings but delivered nothing in the other.

It was Australia’s bowling that impressed here. It was good to roll a side of England’s batting quality for 215 within the first day, but in a way the less successful second bowling innings was more impressive.

Here, with things going against them, Australia shrugged off their misfortune to turn in a very tight performance. It took some time to get England out, but the bowlers were disciplined, patient and determined.

With looser bowling, England’s lead could have been another 60 or 80 runs, but despite the length of their batting time, the target set was attainable.

Starc remains wild and sometimes innocuous, but proved again how dangerous he can be with his propensity to take wickets in clusters. Peter Siddle was outstanding.

James Pattinson’s competitive rage will only be growing after his close call with the bat. Agar has earned another Test match. Watson contributed an excellent spell, but will probably break down because of it.

The attack is very good, if everyone plays at their best. But it’s also the sort of inexperienced unit that could prove totally ineffective on some days of the series.

And frankly, in future matches where Australia’s bowling can’t deliver top-shelf goods, their batting looks likely to bring on heavy defeats.

So now to Lord’s, to see which of those bowlers wants to stand up, and whether the batsmen can get it together.

The Ashes Diary will continue there, and through the tour beyond. If you want to get involved you can find me on Twitter, use the Twitter or Facebook hashtag #AshesDiary, or use The Roar’s own comment boards below.