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

Very tight bowling by Eng but shirley we could show a little intent?

His name ain’t Shirley, and he ain’t showing you a goddamn thing.

Tough session. Tight bowling by England under leaden skies.

1-54 to Aus, but the sun has now peeked through. Much to do for Aus for a lead but minimal damage done before Lunch.

Post lunch has been dreadful. Head fiddling, Marsh inside edging, Carey sucked in. The

Shows what can happen if you get bogged down not scoring… certainly couldn’t accuse us of ever doing that any more!

Simply brilliant disciplined bowling by England today.

A 1-54 session followed up with a 5-71 session.

England has demolished Aus's top order with a great display of tight English style bowling.

Aus's only hope is a miracle partnership featuring Smudge to get us anywhere near parity.

Well played England.

Are oz are playing to the weather? on some forcasts, both sunday and monday due to be washouts.

that is a horrible swipe by carey and what woz broad doing playing around with the bails?
marnus out next ball. good 'leave' by bairstow for root

He is currently 0 off 10 balls but I think Murphy has a bit of batting ability. I wouldn't be surprised to see him contribute useful runs.

WideWally wrote:He is currently 0 off 10 balls but I think Murphy has a bit of batting ability. I wouldn't be surprised to see him contribute useful runs.

How about a few sixes to see off a 90mph bowler?

Anyway, who bats 3 for England in Moeen’s absence? Root, Brook, Stokes? A wildcard like Woakes or Wood? Could be a nightwatchman in any case, if we can finish off the Aussie innings tonight.

All square then, pretty much… one-innings game, though we’re effectively a man down. Bowlers will want more than 50-odd overs’ rest this time.

Well done Smith, Cummins and Murphy. Good to keep their bowlers in the field.

could be a repeat of edgbaston, if england dismiss themselves for about 250 after 50 overs.

as for no3, send in the nighthawk!

The misses by Carey (sorry Lardy but rare for him nowadays) Dropstow (all too familiar) have influenced the game.

I must say the general standard of fielding through the series has been below par.

A very ho hum effort by Aus with the bat , saved only by Smith and the tail.
England were dross in their first innings, and could've been all out for a lot less if Aus held their chances.
Those extra runs England managed could well tip the game in their advantage.

That was a long night with very little to encourage an Australian observer.

horace wrote:The misses by Carey (sorry Lardy but rare for him nowadays) Dropstow (all too familiar) have influenced the game.

I must say the general standard of fielding through the series has been below par.

I think Carey was average in the first two games and quite poor in the last three, especially here. His drop of Brook may yet cost us this game, and it was compounded by a truly atrocious brain-fade shot, falling into an obvious trap off a wide sucker ball. Woeful really. Peirson would have scrapped. So his batting has been poor through the series, but I’m actually more concerned about his keeping. His footwork to leg off the left handers has been especially poor, dare I say Bairstowesque, with the exception of one catch off Duckett … and I suspect an analysis of byes conceded thus series relative to byes conceded by previous touring keepers (from Marsh to Paine, I can’t comment on Taber or Jarman) would likely show that he is at the standard of Wayne Phillips only … not close to Haddin, Gilly, Paine, (Manou), Marsh or Healy in terms of pure keeping.

I hope he can prove me wrong in the second innings of both teams here, but he and Warner have been the weakest links in this side.

Well, I'll take that after being 7-185.

I disappeared to the sheets as Smudge and 2nd had scraped us to 7-210-odd.

Fortunately Wally's prophetic words on Murphy panned out. A very valuable 34 from the no.10 with 3 sixes of Wood no less!! Good hand by Pat as well. Nice to see our tail contribute significant runs.

So parity after 2 days.

One comment just received - ‘first session awarded to the curator’.

Forecast looks a little murky for Days 3, 4 and 5.

Bazball tonight with the series on the line.

No doubt.

If it comes off on possibly the best batting day pitch-wise (overhead conditions dependent), then we could be needing to survive a 4th innings 350+ "chase".

It’s due to fail really badly at some stage. Now would be a good time.

It should've failed in I1 but for Aus's profligate catching.

This was a hell of a series. Hopefully the last few days are the same.