It wasn't a chuckle. It wasn't ironic laughter. It was genuine amusement for Travis Head as he walked off after being cleaned up by a stunning delivery from Brydon Carse on Saturday. In many ways, you couldn't blame him either.

For, till that point when Carse landed the good-length delivery on Head's leg-stump and hit the top of off, having beaten his outside-edge, the South Australian had looked at his dangerous best. He'd been the only batter who'd managed to score fluently without having to take many risks across the two days. But this was close to being unplayable in a proverbial sense. Head's reaction was also a reflection of the difficulty level of batting on this MCG pitch. At least he could somehow see the funny side of it, unlike many of the other batters who preferred throwing quizzical glances at the surface that they believed had consumed them.

Some nine hours after Head had been dismissed, the entire English team slowly sauntered to the middle of the MCG looking understandably pleased with themselves. By then, the light had started to fade, and the gulls had started to take over the entire outfield of the 'G. Some in the English continent carried chairs, almost all of them held bottles or cans of beer, and they settled down just off the centre square. There were huddles, even what looked like a couple of speeches from the coaches, and mainly a lot of banter.

While Joe Root and Harry Brook walked Brydon Carse to their positions at slip earlier in the day, Stokes mimicked one of his players in the outfield. But more than anything, there was a lot of laughter.

England had after all brought their 15-year rut to an end. Root and Stokes had finally tasted a Test win on Australian soil after multiple attempts to do so on what is their fourth and third tours respectively. The visitors had somehow recovered from a week of intense scrutiny on and off the field to register a win and ensure that they will avoid the ignominy of a whitewash, come Sydney in the New Year. They had won back some of their pride.

It was a Test where 36 wickets fell in the space of less than six sessions. It's fair to say though that there was more joy for England at the end of it, and a few very impressive takeaways too. Josh Tongue emerged as the biggest gain for the visitors winning the player of the match award for having been the best bowler across both teams. At a time, the opposition attack included the likes of Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland on a pitch that was custom-made for their lofty likes.

The tall Nottinghamshire seamer bowled the best lengths for the pitch more consistently than the others. And he also got rewarded with prodigious movement, his wicket of Steve Smith in the first innings being a great example of that.

On Saturday, in the narrow run-chase, England also found a hero in young Jacob Bethell playing his maiden Ashes Test. Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley had given England the best kind of start in their pursuit of 175, but Bethell had entered a cauldron when he walked out at No 4 to replace Brydon Carse who'd been sent strangely to pinch-hit.

Under pressure after a failure in the first innings, the young left-hander ended up playing probably the most mature innings of the Test match. He did take risks intermittently, including top-edging a pull shot over the wicket-keeper and playing an audacious reverse ramp off Boland. But there ere also some terrific boundaries on either side of them. From a delectable on-drive off and a punchy cover-drive off Boland to an uppish check drive off Starc a bit later. His 46-ball 40 eventually was the top-score for England as they ran the gauntlet and finished on top within 33 overs in one of the shortest Test matches ever in this country. He also played the field very intelligently, using the vast expanse of the MCG to regularly rotate the strike and nudge England closer to their target all the time.

To do that in his maiden appearance in Australia and that too in front of a giant crowd at the MCG was a glimpse, however brief, into just why Bethell is rated so highly by this English management. And his performance on a dicey pitch, alongside the heroics of Tongue, will go down as being equally significant alongside the much-awaited maiden away Ashes Test win for Root and Stokes.

However, it's unlikely that this drought-ending victory for England will escape the disclaimer around the pitch and conditions it came in. Considering the impact that the 22 yards in the middle, and the 10 mm grass on top of it, at the 'G had on the contest overall. Especially since both captains would later acknowledge and echo the sentiments from most who witnessed this fast and furious Russian roulette of a Test match. About how having a second two-day Test for this series wasn't simply good enough for the spectacle that is the Ashes. More so when the pitch takes up significantly more headline space than those playing on it.

Between Head's laughter as he exited the scene earlier in the day, and England's collective merriment as they re-entered the stage much later, you could sum up what was a manic two days of Test cricket that will never be forgotten at this hallowed turf, even if it was played at a blink-and-you-will-miss tempo for the 10 or so hours it lasted. A famous evening for England in their Ashes history but a Test that will regardless be etched in infamy for how it played out.