On the fifth and final day of the Oval Test, England defeated Australia by a score of 49 runs to tie the Ashes series at two games each. Veteran seamer Stuart Broad said goodbye to professional cricket in fine fashion. Ben Stokes and his team, who had lost the first two games, won the third and fifth games today. This has prevented Australia from winning the Ashes series in England since 2001.
Speaking specifically about the last Oval Test, skipper Pat Cummins announced that Australia chose to field first after winning the toss. With his 85-ball innings, young Harry Brook stood out as the top performer for the home team. As England reached a total of 283 runs, Ben Duckett and Chris Woakes each contributed 41 and 36 runs, respectively.
As a response, Steven Smith amassed 71 to maintain his strong track record at the location. Except for Brook, everyone of the English bowlers contributed wickets as they held the visitors to 295 runs. After posting a total of 395 in their second inning, England gave Australia a target of 384 by having Zak Crawley, Joe Root, and Jonny Bairstow all score their respective half-centuries.
Smith struck 54, but it was not enough as the Kangaroos fell short of their goal. Opening batsmen David Warner and Usman Khawaja scored 60 and 72, respectively. Australia was bowled out for 334 runs thanks to the efforts of Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali, who each took four and three wickets. With that, the Ashes series ended in a 2-2 draw, with Cummins and his team retaining the trophy.
Here are some significant data points from the fifth Ashes Test between England and Australia:
Stuart Broad reached the landmark of 150 Test wickets against Australia with a total of 153. The seamer has taken the most Australian wickets, with Ian Botham coming in second place with 148 takedowns.
Usman Khawaja completed 5,000 test runs in the year 5004. He accomplished the feat, making him the 21st Australian.
Broad retires after participating in the fourth-most Test matches (167). He outperformed Jacques Kallis, who won 166 games. With 168 Test appearances between them, Australia’s Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh are tied for third place. After playing 200 and 183 matches, respectively, Sachin Tendulkar and James Anderson are in the top two spots.83.87: Steven Smith has scored 671 runs in nine innings at an average of 83.87, including three hundreds and the same number of fifty-pluses in Test matches at London’s Oval.
In the longest format of the game in 2023, Khawaja is the only player with more than 1000 runs. Travis Head, another member of his team, is in second place with 836 runs.
Since 2001, Australia has not swept the Ashes series in England.
With 189 wickets against Australia in international cricket, Broad is now tied for first place with Curtly Ambrose.
Ben Stokes caught his 100th catch in a Test match, bringing his total to 102.
3: After Kallis and Garry Sobers, Stokes is the only other player to have recorded at least 6,000 runs, 100 wickets, and 100 catches.
Smith has hammered The Oval’s most runs by a visiting batter (671). With 553 runs, Don Bradman is in second place.
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