England v Australia, 5th Test, The Oval, 27-31 July, 2023

made it to lunch without cocking it up.

Rain for the rest of today?

Another 2 runs still needed for 20%

They’re gonna do this, aren’t they, and spoil the send-off…

Jimmy bowls the last poster at Warner and nearly removes that dreadful mo..both bats now 46

a third of the way there now

Now past 33%

death-riding this one all the way, whatever happens

Met Office radar suggests that might be it for the day with 98-100% chance of rain between now and Stumps.

Oz saved/robbed by rain?

Liked the way Jimmy first declined to accompany Sturat through the guard of honour, then seemingly told the Aussies to disperse before he followed him onto the field! Surely also his last game against this opposition, but then again, we’ve said that before…

How many of these two XIs start the first game in 2025/26, and in 2027? Could be less than 50% even in the first case.

Well I’ll be. Looked up the score just before calling it a (late) night.

Whodathunk Australia 135/0?

when smith seemed to direct him to join broad, i think
jimmy said, I'm not retiring! he might want to reconsider
depending on the outcome.

who knows, perhaps by tea england will be hoping for rain!

Moeen struggling, Wood didn’t look right, we know about Stokes… might end up with Root and Brook trying to bowl them out by the final session tomorrow!

Looks like England will be saved by rain here, just as they were in Manchester.

Radar still shows rain coming off the Bristol Channel towards London. Could be a stop-start day.

A wet ball will suit Aus and loss of time won't please England.

The game is evenly poised between the three possible outcomes.

Hope Ussie has no delayed concussion symptoms. He again batted beautifully last night and would be a favourite for MOTS.

Staggered GCS is still there but in all fairness he played a rare mature knock. So far anyway.

I reckon keeping the Poms fielding as long as possible has worked a treat. I thought only a bruised and battered Jimmeh (surely the unluckiest bowler of either team this series) looked a threat.

If Oz win or are denied by rain, Todd Murphy has arguably been our most important player. Bowled well, picking up 6 wickets and made a telling and swashbuckling 34*. Just hope Murph does not have to bat again!

England should be underdogs here because of their pedestrian attack. It's amusing to think that they order these flat pitches so they can score quickly. They then throw away wickets while scoring quickly but leave a lot of time for the opposition to score the runs. Was amazed that Anderson was selected. Thought his home ground trundle was his swansong.

There "pedestrian" attack has given us a lot of trouble.

Admittedly Jimmeh hasn't been on-song, but Broad, Woakes, Wood and Tongue have given us plenty of hurry up in the series.

I expect it to be very hard work today.

If we get a couple early we’ve got a chance. There have been so many momentum swings this match and series, as opposed to the typical modern-day Test effectively decided on day 2.

Equally as we’ve often seen, these big chases can gather momentum to the extent that they’re won by 7 or 8 wickets. Warner to have the last laugh over Broad with a double century? Could happen… in the old days chasing anything over 200 batting last was always a tall order, now I think you should actually want to be chasing unless it’s a turning minefield. To twist the old saying around… if you win the toss you bowl, unless it’s an absolute road under an all-day forecast of baking sun, in which case you think about it for a couple of moments, then choose to bowl.

Red wrote:England should be underdogs here because of their pedestrian attack. It's amusing to think that they order these flat pitches so they can score quickly.  They then throw away wickets while scoring quickly but leave a lot of time for the opposition to score the runs.  Was amazed that Anderson was selected. Thought his home ground trundle was his swansong.

There’s plenty of evidence from this series that he’s just lost his spark, but then again he was world number 1 a few months back, and took his wickets at under 20 last year. Hard to ride out a poor run of form at that age though.

let's hope for a good score for Warner. 99 sounds fair.

Lol GCS

Woakes definitively ruins Broad’s day by getting Warner…

new ball seems to have helped