England 283 and 389 for 9 (Root 91, Bairstow 78, Crawley 73, Starc 4-94, Murphy 3-110) lead Australia 295 by 377 runs
Saturday at The Oval was never going to be quiet. After Australia had tried and failed to quieten the crowd here on day two of this fifth Ashes Test, England turned the volume back up to 11 on day three with a sensory overload of a second innings to assume control of this final round of a tumultuous series.
Unsurprisingly, a team driven by entertainment used their final Test innings of the summer to produce a “best of” performance. There were contributions throughout the line-up, with the biggest from the main headline-grabbers over the last six weeks. Such has been their speed of play in both innings, they have even stolen a march on the rains forecast for day five.
Australia’s first-innings lead of 12 coming into the weekend was considered nominal in the grand scheme of things. The key question was whether England had learned from mistakes made at Edgbaston and Lord’s, where batting miscalculations bordering on over-indulgence spurned promising positions and, ultimately, led to two defeats that put the Ashes beyond their reach.
Within the first over, England were into the lead. Crawley did as he had done at the very beginning of this series, striking the first ball for four through the covers, as 13 were scored off the first six deliveries – almost as many as Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne managed in the first hour of play on day two.
Both Crawley and Ben Duckett raced out of the blocks, bringing up their fifty stand in 8.4 overs before Duckett was adjudged caught behind on review, at the end of the 17th over. The 79 they managed took their opening partnership tally to 359 for the series, at a rate of 4.72 – just 0.01 shy of Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer’s scoring pace during the 2002-03 Ashes.
With Moeen Ali unable to bat higher than five because of time spent off the field after picking up a groin strain while batting on day one, Ben Stokes strode out at No. 3 for the first time since November 2018. It has long been a position others have suggested for him, particularly given Root’s preference of No. 4. And he showed the necessary application in a stand of 61 with Crawley.
The pair made it to lunch on 130 for 1 from 25 overs, and were keen to add plenty more. Those hopes died just nine deliveries into the afternoon session, when Crawley edged a smart delivery from Pat Cummins to Steven Smith at second slip.
No bother. Out bounded Root to join Stokes, two best mates who are England’s best at gauging a situation, which, given the lead was only 128, was one of controlled hurry. First, however, a huge dose of luck. With just four to his name, Root was hit in front by Josh Hazlewood and adjudged not out, presumably because contact with bat and pad were close enough to suspect bat first. Cummins opted for a review, which confirmed pad as the first point of contact. Alas, the umpire’s call on line of impact meant Australia had to suck up a not-out call that got bitter as Root clicked through the gears.
Mitchell Marsh was the unfortunate recipient of the reverse-ramp for six, over-correcting the next ball to see a full toss tickled down leg for four. At one point, Root had raced to 35 from 32, just two behind Stokes on 37 from 30 more deliveries. Then, with three successive fours off Starc – driven, fortuitously under-edged up and over Alex Carey, and guided more deliberately over the wicketkeeper’s head – took him ahead of Stokes. England’s lead, meanwhile, was up to 200.
A single off the start of the very next over brought up Root’s second half-century of the series, from 42 deliveries. Stokes, however, would not join him, becoming the first of two wickets to fall in the space of nine deliveries. An attempt to channel Root’s aggression saw him cloth Murphy to Cummins at wide mid-on. Harry Brook walked in and closed out that Murphy over with the straightest of straight sixes, but he could not resist feathering a wide-ish Hazlewood delivery to have him heading back to the dressing room.
The early work cushioned the mini-collapse (England were still 210 ahead) and Root’s presence at the crease meant there was always calm in the middle. Bairstow’s entrance has usually been cause for some kind of manic passage, but there was little of that here. The most productive partnership of the innings – 110 – was as normal as we have seen in the Bazball era. No undue risks, especially as Australia were the ones having to do the probing, meaning the Yorkshire duo just had to wait for the bad balls to come.
Bairstow brought up a seven-boundary fifty from 60 deliveries, in keeping with a reserved domination by his standards that saw him contribute 70 of the century stand he and Root brought up from 142 deliveries. It was a stand that would only last an over more, as Murphy found some quality drift and bite off the surface to spin into Root’s stumps via an inside edge.
The annoyance of falling nine short of a 31st Test century was eased somewhat by the lack of bounce from the delivery, which Root will look to exploit as the sole, functioning spinner. With the lead at 320, Bairstow and new batter Moeen were happy to go for broke.
Bairstow could not get going, eventually falling to Starc attempting to find a second boundary after Root’s dismissal, but Moeen did find 29 more runs himself. Some were classy – a picture-perfect straight drive off Starc – while others were not, like when Hazlewood missed a catchable chance at fine leg, which ran away for four.
A classy looking ramp off Starc allowed Hazlewood to make amends with a catch on the rope running to his right from fly slip, before England were whittled down to their final pair of Broad and Anderson, who managed to see things through to stumps. Though Anderson was struck on the arm, he toughed it out to take the innings into day four, even overturning an lbw decision off the penultimate ball of the day.
The ovation when Anderson walked out at 379 for 9 was akin to a farewell, greeted to the field with a standing ovation and the singing of his name. None of those in the stands knew it was actually the man already out there who was about to finish up for good. No matter – they can make it up to Broad on day four.
Vithushan Ehantharajah is an associate editor at ESPNcricinfo
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