Were they honouring his memory, or trying to forget him for just a moment?

Either way, they brought joy back to themselves, their game and their country.

Cricketers painfully close to the death of Phillip Hughes weren’t sure how they would emerge from the darkest of days.

But Sean Abbott, the man who bowled the fatal bouncer, took a career-best 6-14 to snatch a Sheffield Shield victory.

David Warner, who wouldn’t budge from the felled Hughes’ side, struck a Test ton and a half-century.

Michael Clarke, who carried the grief of a nation, scored a century.

Steve Smith, who wept openly moments before play, also made a ton.

Nathan Lyon, who can’t shake the sound of Hughes being hit, took five wickets in an innings.

Ed Cowan, who batted with Hughes for Australia, cried when telling of his pain after scoring a Shield century – then went out and hit another.

Shane Watson and Brad Haddin, slip and wicketkeeper when Hughes crumpled, played with sunny dispositions polar opposite to their combative on-field personas.

So did Australia’s Test team in general. No snarling or sledging, bullying or bluster – just perspective that it is, after all, only a game.

The only first Test flashpoint came after Warner was bowled by a Varun Aaron no ball, but it was Indian tempers that frayed first.

Only Hughes’ South Australia teammates struggled in their on-field actions as the nation’s cricketers took their first tentative playing steps following his death.

But to be blunt, that is nothing new. The Redbacks’ spine, in purely a cricketing sense, has been brittle for decades.

All individuals who spoke about their feats say they carried Hughes with them, yet knowing they must, in Warner’s words, soldier on without him.

Mourning continues. But the darkest hours are always before a new dawn.