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Australia have recovered from a Stuart Broad-inspired afternoon collapse on the second day at the Oval to take a first innings lead in the fifth Test – though as has been the case throughout this Ashes series, it wasn’t without controversy.
With the visitors 7/193 and still trailing by 90, Steve Smith appeared to have been run out by a rocket throw from England sub fielder George Ealham to Jonny Bairstow – indeed, the crowd and players alike began to celebrate when early replays found Smith short of his ground.
However, in the latest in a long line of dramatic moments throughout this series, third umpire Nitin Menon would rule that Bairstow had disturbed a bail early in his haste to gather the ball and break a wicket, with the other remaining lodged in the groove for the remaining milliseconds it took Smith to fully recover his ground.
The narrowest of escapes for Smith would lead to expected outrage from sections of the England supporter base, and yet more jeers from the crowd; but it would prove just the tonic for a late-day rearguard.
Another 102 runs would be added by the tail as first Smith (71) and then captain Pat Cummins and Todd Murphy (36 and 34) took Australia to 295 and a slender lead of 12 before the innings was ended on the stroke of stumps, with three sixes from the Victorian spinner off the pacy Mark Wood providing the lion’s share of a vital 49-run stand for the ninth wicket.
This Ashes series has regularly hinged on crucial, line-ball moments: while it remains to be seen whether Smith’s run out escape will add to that, it has certainly given the visitors a firm grip on a Test that might otherwise have already slipped from their grasp.
“I saw the initial replay and I saw the bail come up and then when I looked at it the second time, it looked like Jonny might have knocked the bail before the ball had come,” Smith said.
“It looked pretty close at that stage. If the ball had hit at that first, initial stage where the bail came up I think I was well out of my ground but on the next angle it looked pretty close.”
England seamer Stuart Broad conceded he was not sure and was not up in arms over the eventual decision.
“To be honest, I think there was enough grey area to give that not out,” said Broad. “It looked like benefit of the doubt type stuff.
“First angle I saw I thought out and then the side angle looked like the bail was probably dislodged.”
Resuming on 1/61 in response to England’s first-day 283, Australia’s start was about as far removed from the hosts’ freewheeling innings as possible.
With Marnus Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja negotiating four consecutive maidens to begin proceedings, the only runs four byes as late swing from Wood proved too much for Bairstow, it took until the day’s 27th ball for Khawaja to tickle Anderson to the free fine leg boundary to release the shackles.
Labuschagne, however, would remain firmly under the cosh; unable to bat with any fluency, he’d add just six runs to his tally in the day’s first 15 overs before his luck ran out.
An outside edge off Wood appeared to have bisected first slip Joe Root and Bairstow, with the keeper failing to move a muscle for a catch that was indisputably his; his blushes spared by a spectacular one-handed snaffle from Root at the last possible second.
Gone for a painstaking 9 off 82 balls, Labuschagne’s fall would at least lead to a run-rate spike for Australia, Smith beginning authoritatively with picturesque straight drives off consecutive James Anderson balls.
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With Khawaja joining in with a sumptuous late cut off Wood, the pair would take the visitors through to lunch at 2/115; Australia’s go-slow bringing with it critics from the usual sources, but despite adding just 54 in a 26-over opening session, the day appeared perfectly set up.
As has so often been the case this series, though, the break would bring an instant change of momentum. Five balls into the second session, Stuart Broad struck to deny Khawaja his half-century, the left-hander’s concentration clearly broken during lunch as he was trapped on the crease plumb in front and spurning a review confirming it on his way off.
Having routed Australia in a famous spell at the Oval in his debut 2009 Ashes series, Broad seemed on the verge of a repeat when he claimed Travis Head in his next over, late movement finding the left-hander’s outside edge to present Bairstow a simple chance.
Hopes of any more breakthroughs were dented with Mitchell Marsh’s arrival, the in-form all-rounder responding to the double strike by walking at the veteran and depositing him over his head for six to ensure his presence would loom over proceedings once again.
But while Marsh’s strokeplay would continue to dazzle, adding a textbook on drive off Chris Woakes to his burgeoning series highlights reel, it would be his final contribution, the otherwise unthreatening Anderson coaxing a tentative prod from the Western Australian that caught an inside edge back onto the stumps.
Anderson’s delighted reaction told of a man desperate to turn his poor series around; at 5/151, the afternoon was clearly England’s.
Alex Carey survived a bizarre DRS review, third umpire Menon failing to detect an apparent graze of his bat face as England reviewed an LBW only to be spared blushes as the ball was found to have hit him outside the line anyway; thereafter, the South Australian seemed keen to attack.
With Moeen Ali again off the field due to his groin injury, Ben Stokes was forced to turn to Root as a spin option, Carey making his tactics clear by launching the part-timer for a slog-swept six over deep mid-wicket.
Just one ball later, though, Carey’s aggression got the better of him, the wicketkeeper gone for 10 uppishly driving a wide tempter into the safe hands of Stokes at short cover, who’d pouch his 100th Test catch.
With Australia’s tail exposed and the score 6/170, Smith, on 32, had a decision to make – doubly so when Wood bounced Starc out, the left-hander’s handy batting snuffed out as his skied pull was mistimed due to pace straight to Ben Duckett at backward square.
Choosing to continue batting sedately through to tea, with Australia 7/186 at the final break and still 97 in arrears, the day’s flashpoint arrived three overs into the final session: chancing a risky second run on the arm of England sub fielder Ealham, the 21-year old appeared to have followed Gary Pratt into Ashes folklore as a rocket throw to Bairstow was sent upstairs.
The England players – and the crowd – began to celebrate as initial replays found Smith fractionally short, but there was a twist: Menon ruled Bairstow had disturbed one of the bails before gathering the ball, and by the time the second had lifted out of the groove, he had made the precious extra few millimetres back into his ground.
Jonny Bairstow attempts to run out Steve Smith in a controversial moment at The Oval. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
A not out call would spark boos aplenty from the stands, with debate quick to rage around the cricket world: Sky Sports commentator Ian Ward would later attempt to prove, though 40 minutes later and with extensive replays, that Bairstow had actually removed the second bail in time and Smith was indeed out.
By that time, though, Smith was well past 50, having reached the milestone – his fifth such at the Oval – with a crunching on drive past Cummins.
With the captain surviving his own close shout, given out LBW by Joel Wilson only for a review to find Broad’s ball had been swinging down leg, the stand had reached 54, and Smith 71, by the time he tried one big shot too many.
Looking to hook Woakes over mid-wicket, Smith’s ungainly heave took a top edge that Bairstow, running back with the flight towards third man, took safely: having anchored the innings amid the earlier collapse, the champion’s wild slog appeared set to cost Australia a substantial deficit.
Enter Murphy: the Victorian, having proved his handiness with the bat with a pair of attacking innings at Headingley, would take the fight to Wood in particular, using the Englishman’s pace to good effect with three sixes over the fine leg boundary, two just out of the fielder’s reach.
Adding a superb cut through backward point for four off Woakes to the onslaught, a flick fine and tuck to square leg off Anderson saw Australia, remarkably, into the lead.
With the partnership on 49 – equal to that of England tailenders Woakes and Wood on Day 1 – and having reached the day’s final 15 minutes, Murphy’s rearguard finally ended on a vital 34 when Woakes trapped him in front: nevertheless, it was only the on-field call of out that doomed the spinner, with his review finding the ball to be only clipping leg stump.
Number eleven Hazlewood was only to keen to follow Murphy’s example, slashing Woakes through point for a second-ball four to take Australia closer to 300.
With Root reintroduced for the day’s last rites, Cummins’ attempt to do as he had done at Edgbaston would bring an end to the innings: attempting to loft the part-timer over long-on with the score on 295, he might have succeeded had the fielder there not been Stokes, who pouched the ball right on the boundary rope, threw the ball up as he toppled over, and with exquisite timing returned to the field to complete a spectacular catch made to look ridiculously easy.
Time had run out for England to begin their second innings, which will begin on Day 3 with a deficit of 12 and may require a new number three with Moeen indisposed.
Smith, Cummins and Murphy, plus Bairstow’s latest clumsy moment, have given the Aussies the slenderest of advantages: only time will tell whether they can make the most of it.
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