This was brutal. This was torture. It was almost cruel. This was the day, surely, any hopes England possibly had of retaining the Ashes disappeared. By the close of a totally one-sided third day of the third Test they looked completely broken.
Not only did England have no answer to the extraordinary figure of Steve Smith but, far more worryingly, they looked flat and bereft of all energy, ideas and imagination throughout a day they simply had to be at their best.
Remember, Australia started the day 200 behind England with three wickets down and some of the biggest pundits in the game were saying they would rather be in Joe Root’s shoes than Smith’s.
Steve Smith celebrates after reaching his double century on the third day of the third Test in Perth on Saturday
Mitchell Marsh was full of raw emotion as he reached three figures in Test cricket for the first time at the WACA
Smith was in belligerent form as he swotted England’s bowling attack away with ease on a tough day for the tourists
Mitchell Marsh unleashes another hefty blow towards the boundary rope as Australia dug in with the bat
Yet from the very first over Root went onto the defensive – with just one slip and a split field – and looked resigned to their fate rather than trying to get through Smith and expose what is hardly a vintage Australian batting line-up.
As a result England took just a solitary wicket in the day and will surely need the rain that is forecast to fall late on Sunday and Monday if they are to have any chance of escaping their least favourite Australian venue with a draw.
England’s incompetence should take nothing away from an Australian captain who is not only the best batsman in the world right now but is piling up figures better than anyone in the game’s history other than Don Bradman.
It is no exaggeration to say Smith was just never troubled on Saturday let alone offered any chances to an England attack that did not have the pace or the extra spin to examine a batsman at the very peak of his powers.
Smith, starting the day on 92, raced to the quickest of his 22 Test hundreds, off 138 balls, before piling on the runs and misery for England before finishing 71 short of the first triple hundred of an outstanding career. It left Australia, at 549 for four, 146 ahead and completely and utterly in control.
This, remember, is a man who began his international career as a leg-spinner and No 8 batsman who failed to make a hundred in his first 24 Test innings. But since making his first century he has averaged 71.66 over 48 Tests and this was his 14th hundred in 29 Tests as captain. Truly remarkable.
And joining him in the carnage was another returning Australian who began the game under extreme pressure but who will end it 19 short of a Test double century having added an unbeaten 301 with his captain.
Steve Smith and Mitchell Marsh shared a 300-run partnership to take Australia way past England’s 403 all out
Moeen Ali celebrates after taking the wicket of Shaun Marsh, caught at slip by Joe Root, early on the third day
Joe Root makes his way to the pavilion at lunch as England saw their hopes of victory in Perth take a battering
Mitch Marsh joined Smith when his older brother Shaun had fallen out of the blue to Moeen Ali to leave Australia still 155 behind and England, in theory, still in the game. The reality was very different.
The younger Marsh had been the latest contentious pick by an Australian panel labelled ‘morons’ by former leg-spinner Stuart MacGill ahead of the series but now he joined his brother and Tim Paine in totally vindicating the selectors.
England did not help their cause. Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad are playing in their 100th Test together but rarely can they have had a game as bad as this in their illustrious careers, going 57 overs between them without a wicket.
Broad is enduring one of his worst ever series and looks no nearer fulfilling his great wish of winning the Ashes in Australia having gone home injured early in 2010 and been a member of Alastair Cook’s thrashed side of four years ago.
Both went for more than a hundred runs each with Australians proving they do actually have a sense of humour by giving Broad, their favourite pantomime villain, a rapturous ovation when he ‘reached’ three figures.
Anderson, meanwhile, looked every inch his 35 years and could find neither seam nor swing to do little to silence those doubters who still believe England’s record wicket-taker is nothing like as potent away as he is at home.
At least Craig Overton, who was diagnosed with a cracked rib suffered trying to catch Usman Khawaja off his own bowling on Friday, again showed spirit and character to at least discomfort Smith by striking him on the shoulder.
To be fair, there were two reviews against not out lbw decisions against Smith on 135 and 173 but the first one was missing and the second did not even have to go through the DRS process because Anderson had overstepped. It just about summed up England’s day.
England were reduced to using Dawid Malan’s part-time leg-spin as they toiled late into the third day in Perth
England bowler Jimmy Anderson sees the bright side of things on a difficult day for the tourists in the third Test
It was on the fourth day in Perth last time that England fell apart and both the series and one of their finest teams began to unravel, with the divisions in the ranks well and truly exposed by the time they lost for a fifth time in Sydney.
Their breakdown has come a day earlier this time but this is a united England team at a different stage of their development and it is highly unlikely they will go down the same path towards internal destruction.
Yet, unless England can change the script very quickly, this series can only be a hugely damaging experience for their inexperienced captain in Joe Root and one that could hasten the end for several senior players.
It was here that Graeme Swann retired once England went 3-0 down four years ago and it was the former off-spinner who made a very salient point on BT.
Swann noticed that not a single England player went to encourage Overton once it was clear he was carrying on with a nasty injury. Not a pat on the back, not an arm round the shoulder or even a tap on the backside.
And that is a worry because it suggests England are too consumed with their own problems to remember the wider picture and needs of the team. It really shouldn’t be all over yet but surely there is no way back for England now.