By David Clough, PA Sport

It may have been English cricket's darkest day but by stumps at The Oval on Sunday that light at the end of an 18-year-long tunnel of Ashes failure was shining brighter than ever.

The best efforts of Andrew Flintoff and London's dreary September cloud cover combined to snuff out any reasonable hope for Ricky Ponting's Australia that they might be able to press for the victory they need to extend their country's proud modern tradition of supremacy in this age-old battle.

You can never say never in this wonderful 2005 Ashes series but even the most cautious of Englishmen must now be sensing Michael Vaughan's team will be the ones who finally put one over on the Aussies for the first time since Mike Gatting managed the feat in 1986/87.

Flintoff, as he has been for so much of this summer, was an immensely powerful force in England's favour.

But the most telling assistance came neither from him nor his admirable seam-and-swing pace partner Matthew Hoggard but from the leaden skies above, which shrouded Kennington throughout.

First of all, they hampered Aussie ambition for the surge of runs they needed to establish a first-innings lead and buy time to bowl England out; then they spared the home batsmen all but 13.2 of the 67 overs scheduled for them.

The twin requirements of quick runs and avoidance of mistakes preyed on Australian minds to the extent that no one could manage the risk-free fluency they craved - and the upshot was a second career five-wicket haul for Flintoff and four victims for Hoggard.

A collapse of Australia's last seven wickets for only 44 runs meant they did not even manage first-innings parity - and all England therefore had to do was avoid self-inflicted mishap while waiting for the inevitable offer of bad light.

They did not have to be especially patient and, having lost only Andrew Strauss to the will and skill of Shane Warne, England need only a little more of the same resolve to bring the Ashes home.

A sell-out crowd will be in attendance for the 14th successive day of this enthralling series, and the vast majority will cheer every ball blocked by England without a passing care for how much actual cricket another autumnal murk permits.

Few will quibble either that there is no gloriously dramatic conclusion in prospect for a summer which has appeared to demand one.

They will care nothing if England's mission improbable is completed in surroundings of the greyest September drab and without even the slightest hint of the last-over nail-biting which has characterised so much of this series.

There will be no complaints if in the final reckoning England win the Ashes in a match which has been robbed of many more than 100 overs by poor weather and peters out into what, in any other circumstances, would be considered the most boring of draws.

It may not be to the purists' taste. But to the English partisan who has suffered a generation of disappointment, summer 2005 has already had its share of tension and heroes - without another twist in a remarkable tale.