In boxing there's the tale of the tape; in this cricket series it's been a case of the tale of the tails.
In a series packed with so many extraordinarily talented batsmen - greats like Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden, Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith - it's been the performances of the lower-order batsmen of both sides that has had a major impact on the series.
With the exception of Hayden, the rest of the players mentioned have all had an influence with the bat, but they were expected to. The fact that the likes of Mitchell Johnson, Jason Krejza, who batted at No9 in the first Test, Nathan Hauritz, Paul Harris and Dale Steyn have delivered with the willow is stunning.
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The way the runs they've scored have changed the direction of the matches has added to the intrigue of what has been an enthralling Test series.
Already, we have seen Australia's last three wickets add a total of 300 runs at the Waca and 139 at the MCG, and in the first innings here the last four wickets put on 208.
Of course, lower order run-scoring was taken to the extremes by JP Duminy and Steyn during their amazing ninth-wicket stand of 180 in Melbourne, which, as it turned out, became the defining one of this series.
Peter Siddle has played his part too, with two scores of 23 and a 19 in the second innings at the MCG, but he was included in the Australian side for his abilities with the ball, which he displayed here yesterday with a fiery late spell which brought him his first Test five-for.
Even Siddle seemed somewhat bemused by the successful batting of the two teams' lower orders.
"Yeah, I don't really know hey," he said with his strong Victorian, country-boy accent.
"At times, I think both teams, when they've gotten to the tail, have tended to relax a little bit and thought the wickets were going to come, which went against what we'd done earlier," Siddle remarked.
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