The Ashes: From hell to Bethell as Jacob shows England sweet slice of heaven

But here at last was a sweet slice of heaven - not enough to rescue the Ashes that were lost, but at least to provide some hope for the future.

Where others have failed - Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Jamie Smith, Will Jacks - Bethell has blossomed, scoring his maiden first-class hundred on the fourth day of the final Test match in Sydney.

It was just England’s third century of the series, in fact, following the brace from Joe Root, who made one in the first innings in Sydney, and in the second Test in Brisbane.

Otherwise, even the great Root has been reduced to mortal, failing to reach 20 in seven of his 10 innings.

His final contribution – as England reached 302-8 at stumps, a second innings lead of just 119 – was a painstaking six from 37 balls. Still he was England’s leading run-scorer in the series, with 400 at an average of 44.44, figures swelled by those three-figure innings and a respectable effort at numerical face value.

Bethell’s unbeaten 142, in just his sixth Test, put the rest of the batting to shame, however.

He had missed out on a hundred against New Zealand in Wellington last winter, falling for 96 when, as he admitted on Wednesday, he “forgot to watch the ball and got out”, but this time he held his nerve and then held his bat high to an appreciative crowd, including his emotional family, sat in the stands.

Having announced himself with a fifty in each of the three Tests in that New Zealand series, Bethell played second fiddle to Ollie Pope for the last English summer and until the Ashes had gone, only returning - and indeed contributing 40 in the run-chase - for the two-day triumph in Melbourne.

He has not been managed well during this time – a combination of Wilfried Nancy and Ruben Amorim might have done a better job than Rob Key and Brendon McCullum, although credit to those two and to England in general for picking him in the first place, identifying a talent and temperament now evident to all.

Contrast Bethell’s superlative performance, especially for a 22-year-old shorn of match practice, with the rest of England’s batting on this tour, Root excepted.

Half of Crawley’s 10 innings were single-figure scores, the opener managing just 273 runs at 27.30.

Duckett, his partner in crime at the top of the order (the crime of not scoring enough runs and giving the team sufficiently good starts), has had an even worse time of it, as dazed and confused at the crease as he was in that notorious footage from Noosa.

Duckett scored 202 runs in 10 innings at 20.20 and did not manage a single half-century, his 42 on Wednesday the top score of a desperately disappointing campaign.

Pope, poor fellow, fared fractionally better, averaging 20.83 in the first three Tests before the most predictable of axes came down.

It is one of life’s perversities that you can be highly skilled at something - in Pope’s case, cricket - and yet not be quite skilled enough to flourish consistently at the very top and escape the sort of criticism that would never attend the person not good enough to reach that standard in the first place.

For all of his struggles and frailties, some of the criticism levelled at Pope has, in this view, been excessive. At least he seems likely forthwith to be spared the same scrutiny.

Brook, too, has had a disappointing series - 358 runs at 39.77, with just two half-centuries and, as he admitted, some “shocking shots” thrown in.

Just as Bethell’s reputation has soared, along with that of pace bowler Josh Tongue, Brook’s has declined and he will no doubt be keen to reassert himself quickly.

Stokes has had a fine series with the ball but a poor one with the bat - 184 runs in 10 innings at 18.40, the sight of the captain hobbling off on Wednesday with a groin strain aptly symbolic.

Smith scored 211 runs in 10 innings at 23.44, and Jacks 145 in seven at 20.71, both guilty of extremely poor dismissals in Sydney in terms of both thinking and execution.

Through it all, as England collapsed from 219-3 on Wednesday, Bethell was unmoved, taking the day, and the bowling, in his stride.

Inevitably, the temptation now is for everyone to get carried away, particularly in a series such as this when slivers of comfort have been difficult to discern, in the way that they did when Brook came on the scene and even in Pope’s red-letter moments.

Australia, it must be remembered, were without Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, three of their “Big Four”.

But Bethell’s was a classy innings against a still strong attack in challenging conditions, a sight of heaven for England on the classic tour from hell.