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From start to finish, the 2023 Ashes has been laced with drama to spare – and the final day of the fifth Test could not have drawn the curtain on the series in more fitting fashion.
There was controversy, there were extraordinary moments, there were momentum swings seemingly with every passing hour… and perhaps most appropriately of all, it finished with Stuart Broad signing off from the sport he has given his life to with the final two wickets to secure a 49-run England win, and a 2-2 share of the series.
The Ashes may have already been Australia’s after the fourth Test washout, but you couldn’t tell from England and Broad’s celebrations after Alex Carey edged through to Jonny Bairstow to secure victory. When all is said and done, an even scoreline, with four of the five matches having found the teams almost unsplittable, seems fair.
The visitors’ victory push, needing 249 runs overnight following the bright start of David Warner and Usman Khawaja, was stymied by the previous day’s controversial ball change.
The umpires’ choice to replace a lifeless and battered old ball with a substantially shinier substitution enabled Chris Woakes to continue his remarkable end to the series by removing both openers in the early stages of the day – for which he was duly rewarded with both Player of the Match and Series honours.
The ball would continue to talk throughout, and it was with it that Broad conjured his final Ashes-turning spell to end the defiance of Todd Murphy and Carey; but it was the fall of four wickets in 19 balls from Woakes and Moeen Ali that turned Australia’s comfortable 3/264 into a despairing 7/275, and featured a stunning one-handed catch from Bairstow to remove Mitchell Marsh, where the tide truly turned.
The tourists, though, had their own share of luck, Steve Smith spared on the stroke of lunch when Ben Stokes caught him at leg slip off Moeen, only to lose his grip on the ball as he began to celebrate – third umpire Nitin Menon quick to rule that he never had sufficient control of the ball.
At Edgbaston to begin the series, a Stokes drop had allowed Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon to steer Australia to the win that eventually proved Ashes-saving; this time, however, England rallied.
“2-2 at the end of the series like this is a fair reflection of two teams literally going toe to toe,” Stokes said during the post-match presentations.
“Being 2-0 down, I don’t think any other team would have been able to respond in the manner that we did. I’m incredibly proud of everyone’s efforts they’ve put in, we’ve rotated through our teams.
“Particularly our bowlers – Woakes has played three games and just walked off with player of the series. Just standing here, [I’m] pretty content about everything we’ve achieved.”
Stokes also had nothing but praise for Moeen, who appeared hampered by his first-day groin injury throughout yet still fought on to claim three vital scalps.
“Yesterday and today he could hardly walk – he did an unbelievable job to show that he wasn’t sore and to still run and bowl in the way he did with his spells, you have to give a huge testament to the warrior that is inside him,” Stokes said of the veteran he had cajoled out of retirement to replace the injured Jack Leach on series eve.
“He just kept on saying, throw me the ball and [I’ll] run as hard as I possibly can. To have people like that in your team who are just running, regardless of how their body [is] is just great to have.”
Jonny Bairstow celebrates a stunning catch to dismiss Mitchell Marsh. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Cummins, while disappointed in defeat, acknowledged the significance of another successful urn retention, which will see Australia’s hold of the Ashes extend to eight years by the time the next series begins in Brisbane in the 2025/26 season.
“I think we can be hugely proud of retaining the Ashes; it’s no easy feat against a high quality English side in their own conditions,” the captain said.
“Of course, we want to come over here and win – it’s a similar group to 2019 and it felt like we were that little bit short of the goal.
“It’s been a great tour for us – unfortunately not to be [a series win], but what a great series.”
Having successfully knocked off 135 of the required runs on a rain-interrupted Day 4, Warner and Khawaja quickly found the going substantially tougher on the final morning.
Aided by the contentious ball change the day prior – a move slammed as ‘disagraceful’ by Nine’s Callum Ferguson – Woakes used it to devastating effect.
Moving the replacement rock substantially in the air and off the pitch, the reborn seamer took care of Warner first, a perfect length nipping away from the left-hander and taking the edge through to Bairstow to send the veteran packing for 60, having added just two to his overnight total.
One run and six Woakes balls later, it was Khawaja’s turn, caught on the crease and pinned plumb in front, the opener doing as he had done in the first innings and wasting a review in his attempt to overturn the LBW decision.
With just six shaved off the target, Australia’s openers were both back in the sheds – and when Marnus Labuschagne joined them, a boundary-laden start spurned when Mark Wood found late movement to coax an edge safely pouched by Zak Crawley at slip, the 215 runs left seemed insurmountable.
Smith, though, had other ideas: taking the fight back to Woakes with a powerful cover-driven boundary, the champion’s attacking intent even put Head in the shade for a time.
The South Australian soon found his rhythm, whacking James Anderson for two consecutive boundaries as the 41-year old overpitched to find himself, in the blink of an eye, on 22 at better than run-a-ball pace.
The 50 partnership arrived when Smith drove Moeen crisply against the turn for another boundary through cover, before the spinner came agonisingly close to having the last laugh in the over before lunch.
With Smith on 39, a sharp off-break caught the glove and lobbed up to Stokes at leg slip, who took it one-handed… and as he moved to pinwheel his arm in celebration, his right hand struck his leg to dislodge the ball before being in control of his movement.
Fully aware of his mistake, Stokes nonetheless chose to review, with third umpire Nitin Menon confirming that the captain had dropped the catch – a round of boos nevertheless ringing around The Oval.
Smith’s survival meant Australia reached lunch at 3/238, the 146 left for victory once again well and truly attainable – yet just when the players were returning to resume, the heavens would open, grinding play to a half for a little over two hours.
By the time the weather relented, just 47 overs remained on the day, though likely to be less given both sides’ horrendous over rates this series – still time for all results to be in play.
With Smith looking to make Stokes pay for his life as he brought up a half-century, Australia needed just 120, still with seven wickets in hand, and a compelling case to be made that they were in the driver’s seat.
It wouldn’t last long.
One ball after Smith raised his milestone, Moeen struck: having looked dangerous throughout on a pitch offering spin and bounce, he conjured both to rip across Head’s attempted drive and catch the outside edge, Root snaffling a simple chance at slip.
Marsh’s arrival brought with it a slog-swept four to attempt to reassert Australia’s dominance, but it wouldn’t last: an over later, Woakes again would weave his magic, a perfect line with a hint of away movement catching the edge of Smith’s drive for Crawley at slip to add to his burgeoning collection of catches this series.
Five balls later, the spinner was at it again, Moeen’s sharp spin finding Marsh’s inside edge onto pad… with Bairstow, derided for his glovework all series long, reacting superbly to clutch the ricochet one-handed.
Starc’s danger was quickly snuffled out by Woakes for a duck, another booming drive catching the edge for Crawley at slip.
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In the space of 19 balls, Australia had lost four wickets, with the match ripped from their grasp.
Cummins, the hero at Edgbaston, faced an even tougher task than his ice-cool run chase to begin the series; together with Carey, the captain steadied the ship, bringing the target into single figures – though not without nervous moments.
A Carey slog-sweep landed just out of a sprinting Woakes’ reach at backward square to raise heart rates around The Oval; but the lull wouldn’t last long.
With 90 still to get, an attempted Cummins heave off Moeen took an inside edge gleefully swallowed by Stokes at leg slip, who this time took extra care to control the ball fully before letting it go.
Sensing a kill, Stokes turned to the outgoing Broad with the crowd at fever pitch: just as he had in the first innings, though, Murphy was quick to take the fight back to England’s attack, clubbing the retiring great disdainfully over mid-wicket for four to keep the flame flickering.
The required runs kept trickling down, though Stokes saved one of them with a chasedown in the deep to deny Carey a boundary; with Broad continuing to make the old ball talk and England unwilling to change it even as 80 overs ticked by, they still held all the cards.
Still the tension mounted: Murphy had heart in mouth as a heave down the ground off Moeen barely cleared Crawley running back from mid-off, before Carey hit his own substantially better to clear the boundary rope; the spinner then continuing to prove his aptitude with the bat by serenely pulling Broad for four more.
Such were England’s mounting nerves that the veteran went back to his Day 2 trick immediately before dismissing Labuschagne and switched the bails; and as if fated by the cricket gods themselves, it would be that which turned the tide.
A hooping outswinger caught the edge of Murphy’s defensive prod, having beaten it twice before in the over, Bairstow clinging on with glee to leave England one wicket away.
With 55 still to get, Carey needed a Stokes-esque miracle to haul Australia to victory; nearly impossible with the ball hooping at one end and Moeen finding considerable turn at the other.
Still Australia clung on, with Crawley failing to clasp a one-hander off Carey that would have given Broad the final say; when Hazlewood drove Moeen into the deep, the target was 50, and Wood began to warm up for one last push.
He wouldn’t be needed: Broad’s 604th and last wicket the keeper edging through to Bairstow, a fairytale finish and final match-turning spell securing a rollicking England win – and squaring a memorable, captivating series at the last.
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