England’s confident batting has Australia on back foot at The Oval

England look set to square the series 2-2 and deny Australia any hope of winning the Ashes for the first time since 2021.

Pat Cummins leads his player in at the end of play on day three of the fifth Ashes cricket Test match between England and Australia at The Oval. Picture: AFP

It was fun, while it lasted, but the end is near and it not the one Pat Cummins & Co. had hoped for.

Australia retained the Ashes with a draw in Manchester, but England look to have ensured that it will be at least another four years before an side returns from its shores with a series victory.

Stuart Broad will not be part of any future series, the bowler who took his 600th wicket in the fourth Test surprised everyone by calling stumps on his career via a television interview at the end of play.

England has a lead of 377 with one wicket in hand and two days to play. The top order was excellent getting the side to 5-360 but the next five wickets, but they lost 4-19 toward the end of the day.

It wasn’t painless, but it was quick. England had wiped off its deficit by the end of the first over, had a hundred up well before lunch and soon after it entered into blue sky where it was going to take a super human effort, or an act of God, for them not to win this match.

They scored 130 in the first session and 135 in the second session and 124 in the third.

The value of scoring at this rate is clear. England now have two days to bowl Australia out and they may need both if the track plays for the rest of the game as it did on the third day.

The visitors could theoretically hang on for a draw which would ensure a series win, but it is unlikely, they could chase down the runs, but there’s even less chance of that happening.

The highest successful run chase at The Oval is the 9-263 England scored 121 years ago.

Australia stuck to its task after a fashion but there was a sense of the air going out of the effort, of minds turning toward the few weeks at home before the World Cup Campaign begins.

Mitchell Starc misjudged an opportunity to catch Ben Stokes on the boundary after lunch and Josh Hazlewood did the same late in the day on the ropes to Moeen Ali.

Neither incident had too much effect on the match but both suggested a side wearying late in the tour.

Starc finished with 4-94 and is now the series leading wicket taker and Todd Murphy took 3-110 with another impressive performance.

Steve Smith put his finger on the problem Australia created for itself it when he said they had been disappointing with the bat on the second day.

The batting let them down and the bowlers could not pick them up again. England’s batting, however, must be acknowledged.

And so this Ashes, like 2019’s, will end with Australia frustrated that it could not drive home the advantage it had.

A spectator runs onto the field. Picture: Getty

Starc has been excellent, has reasserted himself after being deemed unsuitable in 2019, but his first over of the day set the tone for the events that followed.

Zak Crawley slapped his first ball through covers, Ben Duckett did the same to the last two, and England were out of the blocks and not for looking back.

Australia just could not contain them. Anything Australia’s batters did the day before, England’s did in twice the time and with half the effort, the sight of the opposition scoring like that must surely have a deflating effect on an opposition.

The visitors have to scrap and save every penny while their opponents are living it up.

When Starc finally found Duckett’s outside edge the batter had 42 from 55 deliveries, when Pat Cummins got Crawley he was 73 from 76 deliveries.

England was 2-140 in the 27th over. Australia took 49 overs to reach that total.

Crawley has had something of a breakout series, scoring 480 runs at an average of 53.33, only a handful of English openers have scored that many but none have done it at a strike rate of almost 89.

Ben Stokes elected himself as replacement for the injured Moeen Ali and batted at three.

He was 42 from 67 balls when he drove Todd Murphy straight to Cummins at mid on. Australia’s number three, Marnus Labuschagne, had faced 15 more deliveries for a sum total of eight 9 runs when he was dismissed the previous day.

Todd Murphy celebrates the wicket of Joe Root with Marnus Labuschagne. Picture: Getty

Still the first three partnerships had been worth 79, 61 and 83.

Harry Brook (7) was the only batter not to contribute, nicked off by Hazlewood after six deliveries.

Root has been sublime at the crease this summer, he is one of four England batters to have scored over 400 in the series.

He made up for modest returns in the last two Tests, with 84 at Old Trafford and was closing in on his second century for the series when Todd Murphy tossed one up outside his off that spun out of the rough, kept low and cannoned off the inside edge of the bat onto the stumps when he was 91.

England was 5-336 when the injured Moeen joined Bairstow at the crease, the sun was out, the bowlers fagged and the situation perfect for batting.

Jonny Bairstow, the centre of the Lord’s stumping controversy and the subject of much criticism for his keeping in the first two matches, has turned his series around with bat and gloves.

Continuing on from an undefeated 99 at Old Trafford he was 78 when Starc got his man and raised his arms in mock celebration. The bowler had been denied an LBW two balls earlier, had jokingly appealed late when he struck the batter in the protector the following ball and ran down the field, smiling, with both arms raised when he did get his man.

England was losing its way and promptly lost Chris Woakes (1), Moeen Ali (29) and Mark Wood (9) in the next three overs as batsmen.