You don't know what you've got until it's gone. That's the theme of a million songs, a thousand movies, the lonely refrain of guilty hearts steeping quietly in midnight and neon. Things slip away, then make themselves known by absence. The empty space draws a shape that isn't there.

A bit emotive for a cricket match, perhaps, but the structure holds. So does the sentiment, with another full house at The Oval fully invested in England's day-long progress under clear blue autumn skies.

When the fifth Test started, the Australian team wasn't fully switched on. Nothing to do with the sporting cliche of not wanting something enough, but perhaps fatigue stopped that desire from manifesting.

On the first day three simple catches went down from England captain Joe Root. Australia batted diffidently on the second, with no meaningful support for Steve Smith's genius at the end of his own tiring summer. The third innings had three more drops and two lbw decisions unchallenged that would have been out.

By that third day, Australia fired up. Frustration reached a head. Matthew Wade was scolded by umpire Kumar Dharmasena during a contretemps with Root, while captain Tim Paine was told to pull his players into line. Paine chattered about Ben Stokes ending up in court last year after a street brawl, while David Warner needled Stokes enough that the Englishman offered a blunt character assessment as they left the field for lunch.

Time Paine was told to control his players during an at times heated session. ( Reuters: Andrew Boyers )

But by the time the Australians tried to get into it, the game was gone. Stokes was out with the score on 214, combining with a first-innings lead to put England ahead by 283.

That sort of run chase was already out of sight, given Australia's anaemic efforts with the bat in this series. But England rolled on, even as Joe Denly fell for 94, with Jos Buttler following with a fast 47 while a few others scored around him.

All day there was the sense of Australia striving to hold back the inevitable, oily fingers slipping their purchase as it pulled away. Nathan Lyon did the first work, ignoring a cut on his spinning finger and a poor couple of Test matches to prise out the opener Rory Burns, then Root and Stokes.

The partnership between Stokes and Denly was one of those that deflates the hearts of opposing teams, with the crowd gathering in voice and in cheer as a golden afternoon reflected their team's work on the pitch. Boundaries flowed, sixes were struck, and strokes of luck fell the way of the home side.

Ben Stokes made 67 in a partnership of 127 with Joe Denly. ( AP: Kirsty Wigglesworth )

That added 127 before Lyon bowled a glorious off-break, curving into the left-hander's middle stump from around the wicket, drawing him to play defensively at a ball he expected to straighten, only for it to spin even further off the pitch, beat the edge and take his off stump.

Then it was Peter Siddle's turn. After a couple of ordinary overs before lunch, he had come back after the interval to be flogged for 13 from an over by Stokes. But with Lyon taking Stokes from the last ball of the next over, Paine cancelled a planned change and left Siddle on.

The veteran paceman dug into his physical reserves and his bowling smarts, almost having Denly drag onto his stumps in one over, then working him over in the next. One ball pinned him but wasn't given out lbw, the next cut him in half and nearly bowled him, and the third decked away to take an edge to slip.

Denly had grown in confidence but was gone short of a hundred. That made the score 4 for 222, with Australia some chance of getting on a roll. But Buttler kept the roll going England's way, first with Jonny Bairstow, then Sam Curran, then Chris Woakes.

Late in the day, Smith took an absolute screamer of a catch at slip, diving full airborne to take Woakes' edge from Mitchell Marsh, before Marnus Labuschagne took an equally brilliant catch running in from deep square leg when Buttler hooked Siddle.

But the brilliance had come along rather too late in the piece to make any practical difference, while the more straightforward chances earlier in the match had been the ones to hit the grass. England was 374 ahead when Buttler was out, 382 at the close of play, and could add more on the fourth morning with the last three tailenders given licence to swing.

Josh Hazlewood remained wicketless through 19 overs on the third day of the Test. ( AP: Kirsty Wigglesworth )

Australia's main pace pair of Patrick Cummins and Josh Hazlewood have so far taken one wicket between them in the innings. Obviously tired, they've already bowled through all of the first day, into the second morning, a burst on the second evening, and all through the third day.

England finally had a day of the series that was incontrovertibly its own, while Australia will likely rue the decision to bowl first when a draw would have been enough to hold an overall lead.

That decision at the toss could have still worked had Australia's players been sharp from the start. Now they face the prospect of a series drawn, unless they can produce one final miracle with the bat in this remarkable northern summer. A series win seemed to be theirs; suddenly it's all but gone.