Pat Cummins is rolling around with his son Albie in the middle of the Adelaide Oval. It's just under an hour after Australia have wrapped up a hard-fought 85-run victory to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series. Not too far from this lovely father-son moment, a few of the players' kids are involved in a game of impromptu cricket. The Australian captain, who is in his socks, would claim later to have lost to this particular team, which is led by Alex Carey's son Louis, which is also where he lost his shoes.

A loss he didn't seem to mind on a day when he'd claimed the biggest prize there is for an Australian captain. He'd led his team to Ashes glory for the second time in his career. That too in straight sets with two Tests still to go. That too in what was billed as the most anticipated Ashes tour Down Under from an English team in decades. In what was hyped as probably the best chance an English team has had in this century to not just beat Australia but to teach them a lesson. In what was built up, from an English perspective anyway, as a campaign from Ben Stokes and his team to create a legacy.

All it took the Australians to put all that to rest was 11 days of cricket, most of which they dominated. Most of which they dictated terms in. Most of which they set the tempo to.

All Australia needed to do in the end was play like Australian teams do on Australian soil. Be cerebral. Be unrelenting. Be unwavering. Be ruthless. Like they managed to be after an untoward start on the opening evening of the series in Perth. In what feels a long time ago now.

But it's not that the English gave them much to think about. It's not like the English really challenged them to move away from their original gameplans. Instead the English allowed Australia to play the last two Tests on their own terms, save a few examples of their players showing some fight and grit. Like they did on the final morning of the Adelaide Test.

For a brief while, while Jamie Smith and Will Jacks were at the crease, there seemed to be the unlikeliest of chances for the visitors to pull off a miracle. In hindsight, it was never going to be. Not often does a team start the last three days of a Test match banking on a miracle and still goes on to win or even come close to winning. But there was belief among the Barmy Army fans on the Hill underneath the historic scoreboard for sure as Smith smashed four boundaries on the trot off Cummins and Mitchell Starc across two overs, before holing out to the captain at mid-on after attempting a completely wild hoick over the on-side to a length delivery bowled from over the wicket.

In a way, the Smith dismissal was the perfect illustration about this English team. A team with a few players with great potential, but also most of them without the temperament or the tenacity to make the most of that potential. And an inability to rein it in or not succumb to the craving for that dopamine hit with bat in hand.

It was an innings of high class till that point, much like the one Zak Crawley had played the previous day or the one from Jacks that once again briefly threatened to be a bother for the Aussies.

Eventually it wasn't to be. Much like England's claims over the last three-and-a-half years that they had the arsenal to finally dethrone the Aussies in their own den.

In a strange way, this wasn't even the movie that we were promised. It was supposed to be an action-thriller, one where there would be dramatic run-chases, audacious strokeplay and some outrageous batting exploits.

Instead, we got a movie that we'd seen before on numerous occasions. Like one of those you see on repeat during the holiday season, where the ending is obvious, and often can be pre-empted, even in the title credits.

This was supposed to be a heavyweight bout. A clash of cultures. Tradition versus a brave new world. A direct strike at Australia's longstanding approach of grinding opposition teams down on their hard pitches and under their hot sun. But none of it was on display. This English team who'd for so long promised to shelve their stereotypical cynicism and run towards the danger. Instead all they've managed to do is go further into their shell, and if anything lose the Ashes in record time and also end up faring worse than they did four years earlier.

This wasn't Bazball. This was the kind of ball play that we've seen plenty from English teams in the past. When they get overwhelmed by the conditions, get overawed by the enormous challenge of winning a Test on Australian soil and eventually get overcome with a feeling of being unable to do much about the Australians running roughshod over them.

Even on a day where Nathan Lyon went down and limped off the field with a scary hamstring issue with England still sort of in with a chance in the run-chase.

Eventually on a day where England's Ashes hopes and dreams went limp, Lyon would chuck away his crutches and stand on one leg, while leaning against his teammates, as they burst out their team song. It was an image that summed up the story.