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It was a batting performance Australia needed two Tests ago as they ended Day 1 of the final Test in a rather strong position after being inserted into bat by England. The second day of this fifth Test match will be played at The Oval on Friday and you can follow the live scores and a blog from 8:00pm AEST.
When England captain Alastair Cook won the toss and decided to field first on what looked a grass-laden track yet again, the writing, most thought, was on the wall for Australia. Another three-day Test seemed to beckon.
The day panned out differently from what most had thought though.
Chris Rogers and David Warner batted with a lot of responsibility in the first hour of the day and once they hadn’t lost any wickets during that time, the foundation for the rest of the five hours had been set.
Not too many runs came from that hour, in fact Australia were 0-19 from 14 overs at that stage.
It was only after that drinks break that the shackles came off from the bat of Warner and the stand grew in confidence as well. Going into the lunch break, the two remained unseparated and having added 82 for the first wicket.
Rogers was sucked into nicking a slightly wider Mark Wood delivery to the slips after a 110-run first wicket stand but if England thought they could rip through the Australian middle-order, they were left to reckon with the batting prowess of Steven Smith.
On a track where his unorthodox technique wasn’t tested – at least not as much as the previous two Tests – Smith enjoyed his time at the crease. He began slow, had bit of a struggle on his hands adjusting to the pitch but once he had done that, Smith batted out the day with a lot more ease.
Warner fell in the 80s again, edging off-spinner Moeen Ali to the slips while Michael Clarke’s final innings saw him score just 15 before he nicked a rising delivery from Mark Wood to the keeper.
Adam Voges did not have too much trouble batting out the rest of the day, involved in the second century-run stand of the innings. He ended unbeaten on 47, undoubtedly helped by the confidence from his fifty previous Test, while Smith was on 78 when the players were called in for bad light.
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England are two balls away from claiming the second new ball, which is a big plus for them. However, they will need to bowl much better with this second new ball than they had with the first, losing their lengths for the first time in the last two Tests.
They will be hoping to trigger off a quick collapse again, bidding to restrict Australia to not too much more than 350.
From Australia’s perspective, if they can bat out two sessions, it would give their bowlers enough to defend. 500 will be their aim and one senses if they get to that much, Clarke might even want to declare to give themselves a lot more time to bowl at England on Day 2.
What this first day has done is to set it up nicely for the second day unlike the Tests at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge where the first days had effectively killed off the Tests.
Follow the live scores and blog of this second day of the fifth Ashes Test between England and Australia from 8:00pm AEST on Friday and post your comments in the section below.
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