Making generalisations about a nation’s cricket fans can be a dubious endeavour.
After all, there’s a world of difference between the boisterous chanting of the Barmy Army and the polite applause of the egg-and-bacon brigade sitting in the Members’ Pavilion at Lord’s.
But, if one were to attempt to characterise the supporters facing off in an Ashes series, the opposing forces of optimism and pessimism spring straight to mind.
Australian fans are often bullish, especially at the start of a home series, confident in their team’s ability and the inhospitable home conditions in which many teams have been broken.
It’s a surety full of swaggering machismo and wrapped up in the legends of cavernous cracks at the WACA and the - almost - impenetrable fortress with the faintly gruesome Gabbattoir moniker.
England fans, by comparison, can be the ‘Debbie downers’ of the cricket world, especially when it comes to the Ashes; Glenn McGrath’s customary five-nil-victory-to-Australia prediction countered by a gloomy conviction of England being hammered six-nil, if they’re lucky.
Of course, there are reasons for such fatalistic gloom; many supporters, wrapped up in their duvets while following the Ashes through long nights in the depths of winter, have been scarred by some of the thrashings in the past.
So it is perhaps not surprising that some sections of the English media and fandom were full of gloomy predictions after just two days of a five-match series; the changing weather was against them, as were the failures of umpiring technology, and as Travis Head sailed breezily past 150 runs during the first session on the third day the news filtered across social media that the England Lions had been bowled out by Australia A for just 113 runs.
But Joe Root and Dawyd Malan must have missed the misery memo; unfazed by the loss of two early wickets - Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed departing after making starts - the pair embarked on a partnership of both elegance and grit that negated Australia’s strengths and probed potential weaknesses.
No longer were the elements conspiring against them; after seeing off the new ball, England were batting in some of the friendliest conditions seen so far in the match as the softening ball rendered Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc a touch less potent and invited a period of more positive batting.
Speaking at the end of the day and asked about England’s first innings collaps, Malan said the players had decided to “park it” and relegate the day one horrors to the recesses of their minds.
It worked; while there were still moments of danger, Root and Malan saw off the combined challenges of Australia’s fast bowlers and milked Nathan Lyon, who threatened the edge of the bat on numerous occasions and whose elusive 400th Test wicket seems to be morphing into a King Kongish behemoth on his back.
To watch Root and Malan was to be reminded of recent and more distant history.
In Root’s case, the sight of him reverse-sweeping Lyon to the boundary with all the insouciance of a man flicking lint off his suit jacket prompted thoughts of his imperious mastery of India’s and Sri Lanka’s best spinners throughout series at home and away.
And each time Malan imperiously pulled short balls hearkened back to his fine century four years ago at the WACA and strengthened the suggestion that he is more suited to Australian conditions than perhaps any others in Test cricket.
Perhaps the partnership exposed other possible flaws in Australia’s armoury; Cummins’ decision not to bring Hazlewood back into the attack after bowling just eight miserly and potent overs with the new ball was mystifying.
There was no sign of injury to Hazlewood and the post-play suggestion was that Cummins might be keeping him fresh for the new ball on day four; such a tactic seemed odd while Root and Malan looked increasingly settled against the softening ball and Australia searched for ways to dislodge them.
By stumps, one thing was clear: after decisively losing the first seven sessions of the Test, England had patiently and doggedly clawed back two.
They are still 58 runs behind Australia’s first innings total and another batting collapse is clearly a possibility.
They may still go on to lose this match, of course, and each remaining match of this series.
But one partnership sparked the reminder that, as India demonstrated last summer, Australia may be clear favourites at home but they are not automatically invincible, even at the Gabba.
It’s the hope that kills you, of course, and England fans will undoubtedly - and rightly - be cautious of taking heart prematurely.
But, at least for one long afternoon, the sun shone for England and illuminated a possible path to success.
