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We came to see England defend the Ashes in Australia, and boy have they defended. So much of what they have done, from strategy to shot selection has been cautious, fearful of error, blind to the benefits of aggression. It has been an abbrogation of the way they played their cricket under Michael Vaughan in England in 2005.

Shane Warne said before the series that it would be different this time because England were not used to being in front, and he was absolutely right. They don't know how to make the running against Australia. It is anathema to them.

The character of English cricket is defined by the back-to-the-wall situation, Trevor Bailey and Willy Watson defying Australia at Lord's in 1953 being the prime example. Geoff Boycott played his whole career in over-my-dead-body mode. He was very good against Australia.

As it happened, thanks to the toss, England were in front for most of this game. They built a big score and then Andrew Flintoff - who will be crushed by this dark day - did the one positive thing England have done on this tour and declared his innings closed with four wickets still standing. He wanted a bowl at Australia on the second evening and it brought him the wicket of Justin Langer, but the decision proved misplaced. England hadn't made enough runs; they hadn't given it enough of a thrash before they walked off.

England's feeble second innings only flickered into life once crisis was running through the ranks. At 97 for seven, the undertakers were already measuring for coffins. It seemed just a matter of when the funeral would take place.

But then they hoisted themselves off the sickbed. Paul Collingwood, by nature a scrapper, had already taken root and now he was supported edgily and uncertainly by England's last three men - bowlers all, famously undertalented with the bat. We've been talking about England's tail all tour, which is not a good sign. If you're confident of winning, you talk about how many runs your top order will make, not fret how few the bowlers might muster.

Matthew Hoggard kept up his wicket for six overs, Steve Harmison for five overs and James Anderson a do-we-dare-to-hope ten overs. In all that time, about an hour and a half, England scored just 32 runs, most of them off the bat's edge.

England didn't do aggression all day. Aggression had flown the nest. Everyone outside the England camp came to the ground expecting the draw, but the visitors' camp was tense from the start. They couldn't make up their mind how to play things.

They were unlucky. The first wicket fell to a stinker from umpire Steve Bucknor but after that England had no idea how to play the situation. They started playing time, not runs, and you can't do that against Warne on the last day. He can smell your fear, and sniff your uncertainty. He would make a shark blush.

Pressure told on England and it told on the umpires too, who gave two more questionable umpiring decisions. But it didn't hurt the Aussies. They rose to the occasion superbly: Brett Lee gave the best exhibition of reverse swing seen in the series; thank you Troy Cooley. Even Glenn McGrath did okay.

England's run rate was staggering in England last year and it was staggering now. Unfortunately, it was a different kind of staggering: amazingly high last year and amazingly low now. In the morning session, England scored the grand total of 30 runs from 28 overs; overall, 70 from 54 overs. In this Age of the Bat, how can a team score so slowly?

It can only happen when you've lost your nerve. If you thought England froze on the first day of the series, you should have seen them here in the heat of Adelaide. They couldn't have been colder if they'd spent the night in a Siberian deep freeze.