Test comes alive as both sides chase victory - and England nearly achieve it before bad light stops play: T5 D5

Australia 9/492d & 6/111d (23ov, Broad 4/43) drew with England 377 (144.4ov, Root 68, Pietersen 50, Prior 47, Bell 45, Trott 40, Faulkner 4/51, 3/92)  & 5/206 (40ov, Pietersen 62/55b/10x4, Trott 59/87b/6x4): T5/5 D5/5 at Kennington Oval, London. England win series 3-0 and retain Ashes.

Player of the match: Shane Watson. Players of the series: Ian Bell and Ryan Harris.

On the last day of the series The Fifth Test roused itself from an overcautious player-induced and weather-assisted torpor. An extraordinary day's play, the like of which has rarely been seen in Test cricket, saw Australia hazard much to pursue a slender chance of victory, only to be trumped by England who were closing in on a win when the umpires called off play on what to English supporters seemed like a pedantic technicality, to Australian a fair decision.

When England were, after some breezy lower order batting, eventually dismissed 115 behind Australia's first innings score a draw seemed, as it had for some time, the only possible outcome.

But Michael Clarke thought (or hoped, or wished) otherwise. So the batting order was recast and instructions to hit out issued. After 23 overs Australia had lost 6 wickets and added 111. Clarke declared, setting England 227 from a maximum 44 overs. The England batters responded feistily, rattling several  Australia bowlers in the process, and were galloping towards victory when the umpires intervened.

This was an exciting, yet ultimately disappointing day of Test cricket. Its later stages were redolent of a T20 match, albeit one played without any of the field restrictions of that format. The circumstances under which it concluded will be long and maybe even fiercely debated. I don't want to dwell on what might have beens except to say that a draw in this match was a fair result, as was England's 3-0 margin a fair reflection of their class and gritty ability to come back from shaky positions.

Not long to wait for a rematch. Bring it on!

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Rain washes out T5D4 and therefore Australia's hopes

No play: T5/5 D4/5 at Kennington Oval, London

Long day's journey with little delight: T5D3

England 4/247 (116ov, Root 68/184b/11x4, Pietersen 50/133b/4x4, Trott 40) trail Australia 9/492d by 245 runs with 6 1st inns wickets in hand; T5/5 D3/5 at Kennington Oval, London.

An attritional - many would say dull -  day's cricket in which England,without ever being in serious trouble, crawled to 4/247, still 45 away from saving the follow on which Australia will need to enforce to have a chance of forcing a consolation victory.

In the face of a huge total England's best hope, sitting on a 3-0 series lead and hoping that the forecast rain would eventuate, was to hang on for a draw.

2.12 runs an over so far pretty well says it all. Each of the top order batters followed Alistair Cook and Joe Root's example set the previous evening and dug in against an Australia attack which on a deadish wicket was steady rather than penetrative. Mitchell Starc 2/60 has the best figures to date but he was less accurate than the others, none of whom was exactly profligate. Nathan Lyon extracted some turn and, bowling around the wicket, kept Kevin Pietersen if not in check then at least more watchful than in their previous encounters.

There's not much more to say. Even the commentators, if not at a loss for words, found it hard to rise above the banal and trivial, eg asking for statistical assistance to ascertain whether Chris Woakes hitting the first ball he faced in Test cricket for 4 was a record  (I don't recall the answer, but I'd be surprised if others hadn't been there before him). End of my excursion into banality.

Woakes soon - the next  ball- reverted to instructions and added only 11 more from the 48 other balls he faced. He and Ian Bell stayed together until stumps, living to fight another day which, if the weather forecast is not too wide of the mark, may not be the scheduled D4.

Frustrating as it is for Australia, they would have done exactly the same, maybe with a little more positivity, if they'd have been in the same position. Not the best advertisement for Test cricket, but it's part of the whole package, especially in the English summer.

Come rain or shine, a draw looms.

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Smith continues where Watson left off to put Australia on top and in race against weather: T5D3

England 0/32 (17.3 ov) trail Australia 9/492d (128.5 ov,Watson 176, Smith 138*/241b/2x6 16x4, Anderson 4/95) by 460 runs with 10 first inns wickets in hand:  T5/5 D2/5 at The Oval, London.

Rain prevented play for the first session and beyond, and bad light truncated a day in which Steve

Smith followed Shane Watson's example and led Australia to an imposing first innings total.

Smith's century was well deserved. His imperious driving of Jonathan Trott (a modest bowler maybe, but he took a rare Test wicket - Brad Haddin's - today) for 6 to move from 94 to 100 was the stroke of the match so far, and confirmed the young man's transition from leg spinning allrounder to frontline batsman (who, like Trott, can still bowl a bit).

His temperament is, as he showed earlier this year in India, good and ,while he fidgets at lot at the crease, he seems to have the ability to get into position to defend or leave the good and hit the bad, and sometimes not- so-bad, ball. 

Jimmy Anderson was the pick of the almost exclusively pace England attack, which took its time bowling to increasingly defensive fields. Chris Woakes took his first Test wicket - James Faulkner - amid the pre- declaration buffing, but Simon Kerrigan wasn't trusted with the ball. Will he get another chance?

Alistair Cook and Joe Root held out for 17.3 overs before the umpires, despite the floodlights, called time for bad light. England's resolution (ie determination to draw) and the weather, in whatever proportion, may well combine to force a draw: a victory for them is out of the question, and will be hard  for Australia to achieve in what the weather forecast suggests will be the limited time available.

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Watson's 176 gives Australia honours against England attack of uneven quality: T5, D1

Australia 4/307 (90ov, Watson 176/247b/1x6,25x4, Smith 66*/133b/1x6, 9x4) v England; T5/5 D1/5 at The Oval, London. Australia won toss and chose to bat.

But for Shane Watson answering his critics in the best possible way ( and from no 3 at that) Australia would be in a much less comfortable position than they are.

I was sceptical about the changes to the Australian team.  Mitchell Starc for Jackson Bird was fine, though James Faulkner, described by several  commentators as a bowling allrounder, for Usman Khawaja, the formervno3 was not easy to fathom. 

Yet Watson, after being tried as an opener and no6 in this series, stepped back to no3 and has made it his own with an innings of characteristic positive stroke play. The difference this time was that he batted on and on, struggling a little in the 90s, but eventually crossing the century threshold, and continuing from there. (In.another reversal of previous form the DRS reprieved him from another appallingly wrong lbw decision from Umpire Dharmasena).

England were two (or at best one and a half) bowlers short. Neither of their debutants, Chris Woakes  Simon Kerrigan, looked Test class, especially alongside the old stagers Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and especially Graeme Swann who had to bowl more than they'd have wished. Anderson returned to something near his best form though Swann, after Kerrigan's embarrassing Bryce McGain-like Test debut 8-0-58-0 (I reckon I'd have done better than him and I never bowled my left arm spin higher than Adelaide Turf and English village cricket) had to bowl more defensively.

So it was definitely Australia's day, but if Watson had been caught at slip off a hard but catchable chance, they would have been 4/151 and clearly frittering away the opportunity to build a score on a good wicket against bowling of widely varying quality.

For most of the day England kept themselves if not in, then not far out of the game. They did so by, Watson's let off excepted, taking a wicket just as it looked as if they were fading. Steve Smith has batted well in his fidgety-aggressive style, and he will need to shepherd the others to take even fuller advantage of batting first and England's shortcomings.

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Australia select curate's egg team for Fifth Test (or is it Hobson's choice?)

The fifth and final Test is about to begin at The Oval. Australia have announced that Mitchell Starc and James Faulkner will replace Jackson Bird and Usman Khawaja in the XI. To accommodate the beefing up of the bowling a deemed fit (at least to bat) Shane Watson will move up ( back?)to no3, Brad Haddin will bat at no6, leaving Faulkner to follow at no 7 and, presumably, Starc thereafter.

This is a curate's egg of a team: but the good parts are those are already in place, having been developed by a sometimes rudimentary looking trial and error process over the course of the series - the opening partnership, Ryan Harris rising above his physical frailties (fingers crossed that he survives this match), Nathan Lyon reconfirmed (for how long, I wonder?) as no 1 spinner.

Much as I'd hope for an Australian victory, the composition of this team doesn't fill me with hope. And I've not given much thought to England, who are not without difficulties of their own.

1/120 at tea, all out 224 at stumps: Broad bowls England to series win in a bleak session for Australia; T4D4

England 238 & 330 (95.1ov, Bell 113/210b/11x4, Bresnan 45, Pietersen 44, Swann 30*, Harris 28.2-2-117-7, Lyon 3/55) def Australia 270 & 224 (68.3ov, Warner 71/113b/1x6,10x4, Rogers 49, Broad 18.3- 3- 50-6, Bresnan 2/36, Swann 2/53) by 74 runs: T4/5, D4 at Chester-Le-Street, Durham. England lead series  3-0 with one Test to play.player of the match: Stuart Broad.

For England this would be, as Paul Keating said when his party won the 1993 election, the sweetest victory of them all. At least of this series, though it will probably be remembered and mythologised as one of the sweetest of the Ashes contests.

That the Test was hard fought until almost the last session will be overlooked as the tale of how Stuart Broad pulled England's socks up in the face of David Warner's judicious aggression will be embellished. There's no denying that Broad bowled very well on a wearing wicket (as at times did Tim Bresnan and Graeme Swann), but so did Ryan Harris the supposed crock who with a little help from 

Nathan  Lyon kept Australia in with a chance despite some English lower order resistance

Bear this in mind: at tea Australia were 1/120 , needing another 179. Warner 57* was on song and Geoffrey Boycott in the Test Match Special commentary box was praising him and excoriating England. 

How then did the wheels fall off? Broad and bad batting are the obvious answers, but other questions about the Australians' mental approach need to be posed, and some answers proposed. I have none to suggest at the moment, but hope that the team leadership can come up with some in time to avoid another loss of a match, and face, at the Oval next week.

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