Ashes 2023 | Twitter reacts as England run rampant at The Oval to deny Australia series victory

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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History hung in the balance for far too many times on the final day of the fifth Ashes Test but the hosts fought back from the depths of despair to level the series 2-2 in style. Stuart Broad got his dream swansong as his efforts denied the Aussies a first Ashes series win in England since 2001.

After being lacklustre all through Day 4, England's bowling attack appeared a revitalized unit on Monday and took little time to swing the momentum back in the favour. Having been granted a replacement ball that sparkled under the sun unlike its previous rendition, Chris Woakes ignited the comeback with a bonafide peach to get rid of David Warner for 60. Two overs later, he caught Usman Khawaja plumb in front of the stumps and it did not take long for his close accomplice Mark Wood to join in the act as he sent Marnus Labuschagne packing form 13. Australia, having started the day as favourites, had suddenly succumbed to 169/3 from an overnight score of 135/0 and looked to be in dire straits. However, as is often the case, Steve Smith and Travis Head steadied the ship with some flamboyant shotmaking as the Kangaroos headed for Lunch with the score reading 239/3.

Rain threatened to play spoilsport and deny a deserving climax to the series by washing out the entire session but unlike Old Trafford, it relented to leave 47 overs of play to decide the fate of the two sides. Thereafter, the fourth-wicket partnership steadily grew to 95 as Steve Smith celebrated his half-century and just when the game seemed to be slipping away, Moeen Ali delivered the big blow. He turned a delivery sharply away from Head to send him back to the pavilion for 43, thus trigering another mini-collapse, only this time it was fatal. Woakes, assuming the role of saviour once again, scalped the big fish Smith and in tandem with Ali skittled the visitors from 264/3 to 294/8.

Todd Murphy displayed some resilience, building a 35-run partnership with Alex Carey but the retiring Stuart Broad had the final laugh. After his string of jaffas failed to get the btter of the spinner, the 37-year-old resorted to the dark arts once again by swapping the bails and had Murphy caught behind the very next delivery. He fittingly closed out the match by scalping the final wicket, thus bringin down the curtains on a glorious 16-year career and ending with a tally of 604 Test scalps.

This is the beauty of Test Cricket!

Very unlucky!

Test Cricket will never disappoint you!

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That's it.

Absolute class!

Beautiful Test Cricket!

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