Ashes 2023: Ricky Ponting blasts officials for ball change that changed course of game

Australia has lost the fifth Test and England drawn the series but a controversial ball change appeared to alter the course of the game and cost the visitors dearly.

Has a ball change cost Australia its first Ashes series in 22 years? We will never know, but Ricky Ponting is furious and has called for an inquiry after saying a “blunder” by the umpires changed the course of the match.

Controversy aside, the fifth day at The Oval was a fitting finale to one of the five great Test contests of the era.

Both sides have given their all and found themselves locked two-all after five matches. The contest between Australia’s traditional approach and England’s high risk cricket remains unresolved, although the home side will comfort itself that it came back from a 2-0 deficit and could have won 2-3 had weather not intervened.

Australia did not win a match in the last month of the series, but won three, lost two and drew one during its time in the UK, which included their World Test Championship victory over India) – something the skipper said they could be proud of.

There was little celebration when the urn was presented post play; the confetti cannons failed to fire, there were no fireworks or champagne and Pat Cummins admitted there was a sense of “missed opportunity”.

The game and series went down to the last session of the last day, fortunes ebbing and flowing throughout before England claimed victory by 49 runs at 6.25pm.

Australia were 3-238 with Steve Smith and Travis Head at the crease and looked to be cruising toward victory when play resumed two hours earlier.

Rain had wiped out the second session, but the tone of the game changed dramatically on the resumption.

England’s tired bowlers came out refreshed and Australia lost 5-35 in a stunning collapse.

The ball change will be debated for years to come by Australians who remember how the 2005 Ashes series was lost thanks to a wrong decision by an umpire.

England had asked for the ball to be changed after Usman Khawaja was struck on the back of the helmet toward the close of play on the fourth day.

Usman Khawaja is hit on the helmet during Day Four of the 5th Test. Picture: Getty Images.

It is thought there was a small cut on the ball from the helmet and it appeared to be on the shiny side – exactly what the bowlers did not want.

The umpires banished the worn older ball and introduced a new one with more shine, a prouder seam and a richer colour.

When play resumed the replacement ball swung and seamed twice the angle of the previous ball. Where batting had been relatively easy, it now became a dice game. The percentage of false shots tripled (16 per cent to 38 per cent) from the previous day.

Cricviz measured twice as much swing for Chris Woakes, who took 4-50 and was the pick of the bowlers.

The ball continued to swing and seam right through the day, causing England to reject offers of a new ball as the 80th over passed.

The last wicket was taken in the 95th over.

Ponting called for an inquiry into the decision during the lunch break on Sky and was clearly angry about the official’s decision.

“The biggest concern I have is the big discrepancy in the condition of the ball chosen to replace it,” he said. “There is no way in the world you can even look at those two balls there and say in any way they are comparable. If you are going to change balls, you want to make sure you get it right, as close as you possibly can to the one you are changing it from.

“There weren‘t too many older-condition balls in there. But there were some that were picked up, the umpires looked at them, and threw them back.

“I just cannot fathom how two international umpires that have done that a lot of times before, can actually get it so wrong. That is a huge moment in this game, potentially a huge moment in the Test match. And something I think has to be investigated.

“Whether there was the right conditioned balls in the box, or the umpires have just blaze picked one out of there they thought would be okay.

“Perfect storm as well, the conditions were better for bowling this morning. What I saw last night, with that ball there on the left of screen. I will put my hand up and say I have no doubt at all that ball would not have done anywhere near as much as that one did this morning. Double the amount of movement this morning from yesterday afternoon. Seam movement and swing. I think it‘s a huge blunder that needs to be investigated.”

Pat Cummins holds the Ashes urn after the 2-2 draw. Picture: Getty Images.

Stuart Broad of England with partner Mollie King and their daughter Annabella following Day Five. Picture: Getty Images.

Pat Cummins said the batters detected an immediate change with the different ball, but was relatively sanguine.

“Davey and Usi both walked off and said the new ball was reacting a lot differently to the one they’d had previously,” he said. “They said it was a bit harder, a bit more bounce and a bit more nibble off the pitch.

“It’s one of those things, it’s cricket, there’s been multiple ball changes all series, perhaps that one made a bit more of a difference than previous ones, but that’s cricket.”

David Warner (60) and Usman Khawaja (72) were both dismissed soon after play resumed, both batters obviously uncomfortable with the movement and bounce that had not been on display the day before.

Woakes, accounted for both, was bowling the house down and continued to do so as the innings progressed.

Marnus Labuschagne (13) could not handle Mark Wood’s searing swing as Australia’s day continued from bad to worse.

Travis Head (43) and Steve Smith (54) then settled the ship with a 95 run partnership that got Australia within 120 runs of victory.

When play resumed after the rain they had seven wickets in hand, the sun was out and the game seemed Australia’s for the taking.

Woakes and Moeen Ali had other ideas, however.

The seamer was unplayable in the early overs, but it was the veteran spinner playing the last Test of his post retirement series who made the breakthrough when Head offered an unattractive drive at a ball that spun, caught the edge and flew to Joe Root at slip.

That was a poor shot, but the ball from Woakes that got Smith in the next over was glorious and the Australian was well caught at second slip.

The tone of the game had changed — again — in an over.

Moeen, who was a wildcard selection which appeared to have gone wrong, defied a groin injury to put in his best performance of the series.

He had Mitch Marsh (6) brilliantly caught by Jonny Bairstow _ a keeper who had suffered much criticism during the course of the games. Mitchell Starc (0) edged Woakes to second slip, Pat Cummins (9) was another Moeen victim.

Woakes finishes the series with 19 wickets at an average of 18 from three matches. Starc (23 at 27) and Broad 21 at 30) took more but played more games.

Almost lost amid the drama was an extraordinary moment that saw England captain Ben Stokes appeal for a catch he had dropped.

England had appealed for a deflection to the fielder at leg slip, umpire Joel Wilson ruled not out, a last second review by Stokes revealed the ball had indeed caught the Australian’s glove.

Attention then shifted to the catch.

Pat Cummins lifts the Ashes Urn alongside teammates. Picture: Getty Images.

Stokes leaped high and caught it with his left hand but as the footage rolled on the ball shot from his hand when it had moved from the 12 O’clock position to 6 O’Clock.

The Englishman looked to be about to throw the ball into the air when his hand hit his thigh dislodging it from his grip.

It was his Herschelle Gibbs 1999 ‘you’ve dropped the World Cup’ moment revisited.

Stokes seemed to know in the moment, he was the one player who didn’t join the premature celebrations, but for some reason he acquiesced to the review at the last moment and his worst fears were confirmed.

Smith, who was on 39 at the time, had been granted a life for the second time in the match. The Australian had assumed he was run out in the first innings only for a forensic analysis of the tape to reveal that Jonny Bairstow had knocked one bail off with his arm while the batter was out of his ground and the other had not been dislodged until he was in it.

The English appealed, David Warner resumed his stance and practised the shot he’d just offered to a ball that sparked all the excitement. It was over, he knew it.

England had their man, a brilliant deliver from Chris Woakes had caught the outside edge.

The Oval crowd, too nervous to make much noise to that point, had risen as one with the appeal, when the umpires finger went up so too did their volume.

They stayed on their feet and applauded as the veteran made his way from the ground. It was Warner’s last Test innings in England and it almost seemed as if they’d found some place in their collective heart for him despite all that’s been.

Marnus Labuschagne and David Warner following Day Five. Picture: Getty Images.

He’d introduced himself to them in 2013 in a Birmingham pub before the series and batted against them on 61 occasions since.

He’d scored centuries in Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne, but never away.

England changed the ball the night before and maybe the wicket had found some life under the covers, but batting was not the prospect it was the day before.

Hints were there when Stuart Broad beat Usman Khawaja with the six ball of the day, Woakes too was proving hard to get bat on.

Labuschagne survived an LBW review from England when he was fresh to the wicket, Khawaja was not so lucky in the following over.

Both openers were gone in the first 40 minutes and England had found energy that had been so obviously lacking on the fourth day.

The equation had shifted back in their favour. Australia needed 243 runs. They 8 wickets.

It was up to Labuschagne and his best mate Steve Smith to save the day. If they could find the form and favour they’d had in 2019 anything was possible.