Fifth ASHES Test (The Oval)

After humiliation inside 3 days at Headingly, England have hit back with an impressive 4 day win at The Oval. The stage of many Ashes victories, that ground's reputation for spin was apparently ignored by Australia who left out Nathan Hauritz in what will be remembered as the worst decision made during the Ashes of 2009.
Below is an account of the 5th test match and in the next few days I will provide a series overview.

FIRST INNINGS
England 332-10
Bell 72
Strauss 55
Siddle 4-75

The reputation of this pitch to be full of pace and bounce proved to be true on every other delivery and so batting was difficult for all the batsmen and if it had not been for a good partnership between Strauss and Bell, after the early loss of Cook, the good total of 332 would have been much lower. The interesting selection Trott played well for 41 before an unfortunate run out. Siddle bowled very well throughout the day and his performance largely covered up the obvious error by Ponting of not picking a spinner

SECOND INNINGS
Australia 160-10
Katich 50
Broad 5-37 and Swann 4-38

From 72-0 just after lunch Australia experienced its second horrific batting collapse of the series (after Lords) and I fear it will prove just as fatal to their cause. Stuart Broad came of age as a bowler before our very eyes by ripping out 5 middle order wickets in the middle session while Swann cleaned up at the other end. With a massive lead England look almost certain to win 2-1 as they did in 2005.

THIRD INNINGS
England 373-9 dec
Trott 119
Strauss 75
North 4-98

After a few nervous moments at the end of Day Two when score became 3-39, England set about building a huge lead on Day Three with Strauss and Trott showing the right balance of patience and aggression on the fast-deteriorating wicket. Trott scored a fine debut hundred (the 18th Englishman to do this AND 3 of the others are in the current line up: Strauss, Cook and Prior). Strauss should have declared as soon as Trott was dismissed in order to bowl for two hours at Australia but chose to bat further with the tailenders.

FOURTH INNINGS
Australia 348-10
Hussey 121
Ponting 66
Swann 4-120 and Harmison 3-54

Strauss continued a stance of defensive captaincy at the end of Day Three with a field including just two slips, deep fine leg and deep square leg - understandable perhaps if the target was 200 or less (although just barely) but not when the opposition requires 546. Despite this charitable madness both openers were removed with in 5 minutes of each other early on Day 4 before a great partnership between Ponting and Hussey - at the end of which they looked hardly troubled. Enter Flintoff, enjoying a fairly quiet match, he let fly a brilliant throw from mid-on to run-out the Australian captain and when Clarke was sadly run out by Strauss in the next over, the game was decided. Hussey returned to some form with his 10th century but the games was rapped up soon afterwards as Harmison came on and cleaned up the tail.

Some Observations:

• While many were saying good bye to England's best all-rounder since Botham, their next one delivered a stunning spell to destroy Australia on Day Two. Broad has had many critics since his entry into international cricket, myself being a vocal one, but now we must eat our words. Flintoff ran through the Australian middle order in the 2005 Oval test to help gain the desired result and his replacement has achieved the same here.
• Strauss's decision to delay the declaration and then to set up sutch a defensive field may have surprised and infuriated some but he more than made up for that the next day when he picked Harmison to break the partnership of Ponting/Hussey. Harmison's pace and bounce troubled Hussey to the point where he called through a clearly surprised captain to disaster and the game changed.
• Why didn't Ponting pick Hauritz? this question may haunt him for a while (alongside the 2005 Edgebaston decision to bowl first) and it should. The Oval is the equivalent of the SCG and you ignore its spin-friendly surface at your peril.

• Andrew Flintoff played his final test match and ends his test career with:
• 79 matches
• 3845 runs @ 31.77 including 5 hundreds/26 half-centuries
• 226 wickets @ 32.78 with 3 five-wicket hauls
• 52 catches
• He may have had a quiet test match (just 1 wicket and 29 runs) but instead of delivering the Ashes home with a stirring performance, he could sit back and watch his successor rise to the challenge.

Congratulations England. Given the decline in Australian cricket of late, you need not fear a 5-0 result in 2010