Right, that’s it from me. Stick around on site for all the reports and reaction. And join us again tomorrow for day two. But from me, cheerio!
STUMPS
Australia 285-3. Australia’s day then, but it has been a decent battle between bat and ball.
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79.4 overs: Australia 285-3 (Smith 78, Voges 47) The final over before the new ball and Steven Finn will bowl it. A leg bye brings up the 100 partnership – the first Australian century partnership in this series, fact fans, that has not involved Chris Rogers.
Oh, and out of nowhere, that’s that for the day. The light isn’t great but it hasn’t deteriorated that much over the last 10 minutes or so. Hmph.
79th over: Australia 285-3 (Smith 78, Voges 47) Stokes continues despite those shoulder stretches. He keeps things tight then looks to trouble Voges with a short one that the batsman pulls just wide of the man at square leg.
Further dark clouds gather near the Oval and plot precipitation.
78th over: Australia 280-3 (Smith 77, Voges 43) Stokes is just stretching his shoulder a little after that over. He has remained on the field, though, so you’d imagine it’s nothing too serious. Finn beats Voges’ outside edge for the umpteenth time and then clips a full one to cow corner for four.
77th over: Australia 275-3 (Smith 76, Voges 39) Ben Stokes returns to the England attack as Cook ponders his options with the new ball. He sends down a maiden at Voges.
76th over: Australia 275-3 (Smith 76, Voges 39) Another edge – Voges straightened up by an effort ball from Finn – flies into glorious green space behind the batsman, this time in the gully region.
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75th over: Australia 272-3 (Smith 76, Voges 36) A superb stop from Joe Root at backward point as Smith slashes hard at a wide one from Wood denies Australia a boundary. So just a leg bye to the total.
74th over: Australia 271-3 (Smith 76, Voges 36) Voges pushes a single past the man at gully. Finn responds with a full one – almost yorker length – that Smith attempts to blast out of the ground, over Surrey, out over the channel, and into the soup of a surprised diner at a Paris street cafe. Instead he finds the edge and the ball zips low at Bell, pitching yard or two short and rattling away to the fence.
73rd over: Australia 264-3 (Smith 71, Voges 35) A maiden – a bit of a rarity – from Wood at Smith.
72nd over: Australia 264-3 (Smith 71, Voges 35) There’s a decent-sized appeal – a Uranus in the solar system of appeals – as Finn smites Smith on the pad. It looks to be going down leg to me, and Aleem Dar is unmoved. England opt to review, though … and indeed it is missing leg stump by an inch or two. Voges celebrates with a tidy flick fine for four. Next up, Finn finds the edge but Voges plays with soft enough hands to send the ball bobbling low through the slips for four more.
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71st over: Australia 255-3 (Smith 71, Voges 27) Wood has one ball remaining in his over … and it’s left alone outside off by Voges.
The players are back out. We can go on to 6.56pm BST, so there’s more than an hour of play available.
The sun is out and the restart has been set for 5.50pm BST.
I think it’s just a squally shower but, in the interests of full disclosure, I should point out that I’m NOT a trained meteorologist.
70.5 over: Australia 255-3 (Smith 71, Voges 27) The sky over London now is leaden. I’ve not seen a grey that threatening since watching the Fifty Shades film. And the rain arrives. Off they go.
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70th over: Australia 254-3 (Smith 70, Voges 27) A bit of extra bounce from Broad sees Voges’ fingers jammed against the bat handle. He recovers well enough to tickle four to fine leg from the final ball of the over. And that’s drinks.
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69th over: Australia 249-3 (Smith 69, Voges 23) Wood once more. He cuts Voges in half with one that jags back from outside off with the viciousness of a jam-crazed wasp.
“Re Bairstow’s bits. Presumably your inbox is flooded with emails about the … er … hardness of Yorkshiremen?” Oh, Dale Sellers how could you?
68th over: Australia 248-3 (Smith 68, Voges 23) Stuart Broad is into the attack for the first time in this evening session. He overpitches on middle-and-leg and Voges tucks in with relish, guiding all along the ground to cow corner for four. Just a little rain in the air now.
67th over: Australia 242-3 (Smith 67, Voges 18) Here’s a screengrab of that lucky escape for Bairstow:
Meanwhile, Smith crashes four more past point. He looks in the mood now.
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66th over: Australia 237-3 (Smith 63, Voges 18) Seven off the first four balls of Moeen’s latest in one and twos, and from the last there probably should be four more as the bowler drags one short. Voges pulls hard … straight into Bairstow’s crotch at short leg. He must’ve had some serious protection down there because that could’ve been exceptionally nasty. Instead the Yorkshire man is up and smiling (perhaps mostly in relief).
65th over: Australia 230-3 (Smith 62, Voges 12) Mark Wood returns and he immediately has Voges in trouble, first beating the outside edge then finding a leading one. Voges survives on each occasion. And later in the over Wood has his man in trouble once more, beating the inside edge and thwocking the pad. A very fine maiden.
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64th over: Australia 230-3 (Smith 62, Voges 12) Smith strikes the first ball of Moeen’s next over for four – it’s a slightly squirty effort to third man but four runs none the less. This pair have got their collective foot on the gas.
63rd over: Australia 224-3 (Smith 57, Voges 11) Adam Voges gets in on the act with a couple of back-to-back boundaries, both whacked through the offside. The second was off what looked to be a botched slower ball from Stokes that ended up as a full toss.
62nd over: Australia 216-3 (Smith 57, Voges 3) Buttler charges towards Moeen in celebration as the ball loops up into the hands of Bairstow at short leg. It missed the bat by about a foot. From the penultimate ball of the over, Smith calmly strides down the ptich and plonks the ball into the stands at long on. Six!
61st over: Australia 210-3 (Smith 51, Voges 3) Steve Smith goes to his half-century by thunking a Stokes full toss through the covers for four. He was streaky as a twin-pack of unsmoked Danish early on but he’s settled down into something much more Steve Smith 2014-15 than Steve Smith 2010-11.
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60th over: Australia 205-3 (Smith 46, Voges 3) Moeen Ali returns to the attack. He did for David Warner earlier, but unusually not due to the sort of shot that, had the Australia opener connected correctly, would’ve sent the ball flying into the London sky, out over Wiltshire, high over the Atlantic and landing on a confused pigeon in downtown Caracas, but to a nibble outside off to one that turned.
There is a touch of turn here but he can’t find it with his first delivery – overpitched and smashed through the covers as it is by Steve Smith – but the rest are given the opportunity. Voges cautiously plays from his crease.
59th over: Australia 200-3 (Smith 41, Voges 3) Stokes again worries Voges outside off, this time the Australia No5 nudges down and into the slip cordon. But h survives another testing over.
58th over: Australia 200-3 (Smith 41, Voges 3) Finn offers Smith a little too much width and the FAC guides neatly through point for four runs that take Australia to the 200 mark.
57th over: Australia 194-3 (Smith 35, Voges 3) There’s a yelp of an appeal as Voges shoulders arms outside off and is surprised to find the ball swerving stumpwards. It’s going well over the top but this has been another fine spell from Stokes.
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56th over: Australia 192-3 (Smith 34, Voges 2) You don’t get much razzamatazz from Adam Voges but you do get stubbornness and, when he’s on his game, an awful lot of stickability. You’d imagine he’s playing for his Test place to some extent here after a pretty dismal series.
Finn almost does for Smith here, but an edgy cut flashes past Root in a strange short-gully position and rattles away for four over turf as green and smooth as the skin of a watermelon.
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55th over: Australia 187-3 (Smith 30, Voges 1) It wasn’t the greatest shot of Clarke’s career but it was another fine ball from Stokes, who over the past two Tests has taken a real step forward in his bowling. Voges gets off the mark with a single to square leg.
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WICKET! Clarke c Buttler b Stokes 15 (Australia 186-3)
Stokes has Clarke driving airily outside off and making no contact. And a couple of balls later he has his man. Or does he? The finger goes up as Clarke feathers an edge through to Buttler. After a long pause the Australia captain reviews. There’s nothing on HotSpot but a tiny spike on Snicko – decision stands and Clarke has to walk.
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54th over: Australia 185-2 (Smith 30, Clarke 14) Off we go again then. Steven Finn rumbles in once more. Clarke fends then flicks a single to fine leg.
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Speaking of rain … It’s still grey at the Oval as it has been all day, but there is a little – and I mean little – band of the wet stuff approaching the area from the west. I doubt it’ll cause a break in play but you never know.
What? No, no, no. I’m not crying. It’s just been raining on my face.
So anyway, it looks at this point as if this match will at least have a proper Day Three, and maybe even a Four or Five. But you never know. I’ll hand you back now to John Ashdown, who’ll see you expertly through to the close. Thanks for your company, emails and tweets. Bye.
Tea. Australia 184-2
53rd over: Australia 184-2 (Smith 29, Clarke 14). Broad bowls the last over before the interval. Clarke nudges him off his hips for a single, then Smith does his swivel-pull thing for another, as Broad struggles to build the kind of pressure he’s managed so brilliantly at other points this summer. It’s tea, and Australia will be the happier side.
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52nd over: Australia 182-2 (Smith 28, Clarke 13). Wood’s turn to go short this time, but it’s nothing Smith can’t duck underneath without too much bother. Another back of a length ball is pulled to Bairstow at deep square leg for a single. Clarke pushes for one more. Bumble’s off on a strange riff in the commentary box, comparing various London landmarks visible from the blimp-camera to far-flung destinations (The Shard = Dubai; Crystal Palace = Paris; Hammersmith Bridge = Sydney). This could have legs. Or perhaps not.
51st over: Australia 180-2 (Smith 27, Clarke 12). Clarke tucks Broad away off his pads for a couple, and gets a dabbed three through the slips, showing good hands. Clarke thus far looks untroubled. Smith gets another single with a controlled pull through midwicket, before Broad finally does test Clarke with a short ball that the captain pulls himself away from.
50th over: Australia 174-2 (Smith 26, Clarke 7). Ali is indeed withdrawn from the attack, in favour of Wood. Smith is watchful throughout a maiden that contains much of the pace and carry of Wood’s earlier spells but not quite the devilishness.
49th over: Australia 174-2 (Smith 26, Clarke 7). There’s a bowling change at the Pavilion End in any case, Broad back in the attack now Clarke’s out in the middle. Smith pulls across the line for a single in that gauche but effective way of his to put the captain on strike. Broad tests him with a couple that show some considerable in-swing, the second of which hits him just above the pads, but Clarke survives.
48th over: Australia 173-2 (Smith 25, Clarke 7). The sub fielder Will Gidman is on for Mark Wood as Ali continues at the Vauxhall End. He finds some decent turn and bounce into Smith’s pads but this pair know how to play spin as well as anyone, and Smith gets forward confidently to drive to mid-on and take a single. Clarke gets even cockier, lofting Ali over the top for a one-bounce four. Ali comes back at him well with a couple of decent tighter balls, but one wonders whether we might see a bowling change at that end sooner rather than later.
47th over: Australia 168-2 (Smith 24, Clarke 3). Noting my century-prediction for Warner a couple of overs ago, Dale Sellers emails in to say “Top jinxing my friend”, presumably cackling manically while doing so. Smith adds a single to bring Clarke on strike to face Finn, who pushes one too far into the Australia captain’s pads and concedes two leg byes as the ball is ricocheted down to fine leg. The outfield, by the way, is so lush it looks like something from a computer game: completely unscuffed and unscorched. Not the August Oval surface we know and love.
Wicket! Warner c Lyth b Ali 85, Australia 161-2
46th over: Australia 165-2 (Smith 23, Clarke 3). Ali gets Warner again! The off-spinner finds just enough turn to fox Warner and find his edge, and Lyth holds a sharp chance at slip. So that hundred eludes Warner again. Now here comes Michael Clarke, to a guard of honour and generous applause from the crowd. All a bit sentimental I know, but I do still love that cricket does stuff like this. I also love that Clarke almost went first ball, flicking one off his pads straight to Ian Bell, who almost runs him out with a sharp toss back to the keeper but it doesn’t quite have the power to reach Buttler in time. He’s then off the mark with three. Smith adds a single to complete a pleasingly eventful over.
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45th over: Australia 161-1 (Warner 85, Smith 22). Finn does well to dive low on his follow through to cut off Smith’s fierce straight drive. He can do nothing when Smith pretty much repeats the shot though, sending a textbook cover drive zipping to the boundary for four. Singles for each batsman follow as understandable expectations that the first Australia wicket might have sparked another quickfire collapse are now firmly dashed. These two have already added 51.
44th over: Australia 153-1 (Warner 84, Smith 15). Ali is back into the attack, and Warner nonchalantly flays his first ball between two offside fielders. A beautifully placed cover drive. A first hundred of the series is in reach for the opener now.
News from elsewhere: it’s been India’s day on the first day of the great Kumar Sangakkara’s final Test, India reaching 319-6 against Sri Lanka in Colombo
43rd over: Australia 148-1 (Warner 80, Smith 15). A rare loose shot from Warner, inside-edging Finn behind square on the legside for a single. Smith’s playing rather more loose shots though, as he demonstrates with a downright weird play and miss, trying to turn the ball to leg and twisting himself into such an awkward position that he gets nowhere near the ball. What an unusual player he is. A dabbed two completes the scoring from this over.
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42nd over: Australia 144-1 (Warner 79, Smith 11). Warner slightly mistimes a hook from a short ball from Stokes, but it lands harmlessly behind square leg and brings one. Smith drives to mid-on for another single before bye off a rather awry ball sprayed down the legside completes the over.
“Any chance of a plug for the U19 T20 berkshire finals Boyne Hill CC (Maidenhead) are hosting Sunday? Ashes will be shown on TV in the bar,” writes Matthew Valentine. There’s every chance, I’d have thought, Matthew.
41st over: Australia 141-1 (Warner 78, Smith 10) Afternoon again everyone. Smith – who’ll probably go on to get a hundred now his technical failings have been so exhaustively picked over in the Sky commentary box - inside-edges unconvincingly to fine leg for a single. Warner, by contrast, is on top of his game and picks up four more with nothing more than a front-foot push down the ground. A scurried one follows when Stokes shies a little too hastily at the stumps from backward point and they nick a single with the overthrow.
The earlier talk of unlikely reading material while watching cricket reminds me that I got through the denouement of Monica Ali’s Brick Lane to help me get through the denouement of Edgbaston 2005, as a coping mechanism really. I needed distraction as nightmarish defeat seemed to loom.
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40th over: Australia 135-1 (Smith 9, Warner 73) Smith’s uncertainty is almost his downfall, with Stokes finding an inside edge and the ball whistling past the stumps and down to the boundary. And with that Tom Davies is to return to see you through to tea.
39th over: Australia 129-1 (Smith 5, Warner 73) Just a single for a slighty uncertain Smith off Finn’s latest.
Here’s a bit of a charity plug from Nicola Davies:
What started in 2013 as a project to design and sell an aesthetically pleasing diagram to show where the fielding positions are on a cricket pitch, in order to raise awareness of Time to Change (the campaign to challenge mental health discrimination) is still going strong! Thanks to mentions on over-by-over I’ve fulfilled my objective of selling a poster to someone who isn’t my dad, and have even expanded my range to include a variety of crickety t-shirts, badges and cards. I’ve created bespoke pieces to auction at an event to mark Mike Yardy’s benefit year and at Sussex CCC’s first ever LGBT cricket festival, and am continuing to donate 10% of all online sales to my local Mind.
But possibly the greatest thing I’ve done for humanity is to design the attached homage to the devastation at Trent Bridge a couple of weeks ago. I’m giving it away as a free postcard with every order placed on my site, in a bid to prohibit any Australians to forget about their team’s dismal annihilation at the hands of Stuart Broad and co on that fateful day in Nottingham …
38th over: Australia 129-1 (Smith 4, Warner 73) And it’s a double change once more – Ben Stokes on for Mark Wood. It’s a bit of a mixed bag, with a couple bunged down the leg side, the last of which comes off Warner’s pad and the batsmen pick up a couple more leg byes.
37th over: Australia 127-1 (Smith 4, Warner 73) The first bowling change since lunch – Steven Finn replaces Stuart Broad. Warner punches economically through the covers for three and Smith misses a flick off his hip but sees four leg byes skitter through to fine leg.
36th over: Australia 120-1 (Smith 4, Warner 70) Smith carves a straight one from Wood to midwicket for a couple.
35th over: Australia 118-1 (Smith 2, Warner 70) Warner is tempted into a hook as Broad bangs one in short, but it’s a bit half-hearted and there’s a huge top-edge that zips away for four to fine leg. It’s just the sort of slightly muddled shot at about this stage of the innings that has meant he has five 50s in this series and no hundreds. He gets away with this one, though.
34th over: Australia 112-1 (Smith 1, Warner 65) Steve Smith immediately takes on another short ball from Wood and pulls away for a single.
“Re. John Starbuck’s weirdest things to read when following cricket (29th over),” writes Robert Wilson. “Didn’t I win that challenge last year while reading Stendhal’s lunatic manuscripts (kid gloves and all) in the archives in Grenoble? If not, I did once agonisingly polish off Dryden’s The Hind and the Panther during a game at Fenners. One of the Essex fielders actually asked me if I was ok (that’s not a joke). Apparently, I was making terrible noises.”
WICKET! Rogers c Cook b Wood 43 (Australia 110-1)
Wood bangs one in back of a length and Rogers jousts at the thing at chest height outside off. The edge flies to first slip, where Cook juggles before clinging on.
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33rd over: Australia 110-0 (Rogers 43, Warner 64) A brilliant slower ball from Broad almost gets England the breakthrough – Rogers completely mistimed a drive but it dropped a yard short of the bowler. It’s an excellent over from Broad, whose figures read 9-3-17-0 at the end of it.
32nd over: Australia 108-0 (Rogers 42, Warner 64) This is Australia’s fourth century partnership of the series – three of them have been Rogers/Warner, while the other was Rogers/Smith. Wood is pretty close to ending it here with one that beats Rogers’ outside edge. The opener responds by timing one sweetly down the ground for four.
31st over: Australia 103-0 (Rogers 38, Warner 63) Broad tries a couple of balls from over the wicket at Warner but quickly returns to his usual round-the-wicket approach. From the last, Rogers thunks a drive through the covers to bring up the Australia 100.
The old Warner did nothing quietly but the new Warner has quietly had a decent series: 396 at 49.50. Only Rogers & Root have made more runs.
— 100 Ashes Quotes (@100ashesquotes) August 20, 2015
30th over: Australia 99-0 (Rogers 34, Warner 63) Warner clips Wood behind square for a couple then guides backward of a diving Ben Stokes at gully for four. He’s playing within himself and doesn’t look like he’s about to give his wicket away with a brainfreeze. Which probably means he’s about to give his wicket away with a brainfreeze.
29th over: Australia 93-0 (Rogers 34, Warner 57) Broad keeps things tidy for five balls then overpitches just a touch with his last to Rogers and is driven square for four for his trouble.
“I can’t claim anything exotic like the Philippines (though I expect those who do live there don’t think of it that way),” begins John Starbuck, “as I’m at home, listening to TMS and checking the OBO, but I have knocked off the Guardian’s quick crossword and resumed reading Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange(Penguin 2014), which is pretty outré. Apart from the OBO, what is the weirdest thing to read when following cricket?”
28th over: Australia 89-0 (Rogers 30, Warner 57) Mark Wood returns at the Vauxhall End for the first over after the lunch break and he immediately overpitches onto Rogers’ pads and is flicked away for three to the backward square leg boundary. But he follows that up with a lovely full delivery that wiffles past the outside edge of a full-blooded Warner drive. And to continue this Kellogg’s multipack of an over he offers Warner some width from the penultimate ball of the over and is crunched to the point boundary, then follows up with another beauty that beats the outside edge.
The players return to the field. Earlier we mentioned the Change Cricket outside the Oval before play today. Here’s the full story.
An email. “This was never going to be as easy as Trent Bridge,” writes Richard Hartland. “I get the feeling when the Australian selectors gathered the players after that match they will have told them in no uncertain terms that win or lose this last match, the one thing to avoid would be an embarrassment on the scale of that first innings shower.
“All the same though, I’m enjoying the fact that it might be more of a contest this time. Also that I can finally follow the OBO live, sat on my porch with a G&T, even here in the rural Philippines, thanks to a very long bamboo pole (with an internet antenna thingy at the top).”
Hello all. Well, this is all a little unexpected. Warner and Rogers have been Australia’s best batsmen in this series and the last pair that you’d expect to be mentally shot at this stage, but their determination has been hugely impressive. It should set the tone for a big score for their team but it hasn’t quite worked out that way in the series so far.
First morning thoughts: Australia have played with caution and intelligence so far, seeing off the new ball in a cloudy first hour before playing a few more expansive shots. “Proper, old-fashioned Test cricket,” purrs Michael Holding in the commentary box approvingly. England haven’t bowled particularly badly – Wood was excellent early on, though Broad has been below his best – though they may now be in for a long hard day. John Ashdown will be with you first thing after lunch, so send your thoughts, witticism and statistical quirks to him at john.ashdown@theguardian.com. See you later.
Lunch: Australia 82-0
27th over: Australia 82-0 (Rogers 27, Warner 53). The last over before lunch is bowled by Finn, who has a half-shout for lbw against Warner but it pitched outside leg stump. A maiden ends the session. It’s been a first morning as unlike that at Trent Bridge as could have been expected.
26th over: Australia 82-0 (Rogers 27, Warner 53). Broad is back before lunch, from the Vauxhall End (the end which, if memory serves, he bowled from when ripping through Australia in 2009). He’s still around the wicket, spearing it in at Rogers, who duly nudges round the corner for one. Warner flicks away a fuller delivery for another single and Rogers keeps the strike rotating with an other one, as does Warner off the fifth ball of the over. It’s all rather effortless for Australia at the moment.
25th over: Australia 78-0 (Rogers 25, Warner 51). Warner brings up an intelligent half-century with a drive off a loose Finn delivery for four. Another well-judged quick single follows. This partnership, in terms of the weather conditions and the stand’s steady unflappable nature, is beginning to carry slight echoes of that between Hayden and Langer here 10 years ago.
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24th over: Australia 72-0 (Rogers 24, Warner 46). Ali finds some proper turn away from the left-hander, which finds Rogers’ edge and squirts out beyond slip for a single. But a fuller delivery gets the treatment from Warner, who hoiks it over square leg for four. A single follows, and then comes a much better delivery that turns and bounces sharply past Rogers’ outside-edge. A single completes the over.
Jonathan Wilton, meanwhile, has some words in defence of Australia’s outgoing captain: “I am amazed at the way people have turned on Clarke. He has been a real positive force for Australian cricket and his sportsmanship in declaring the last time he was at the Oval to make a game of it should be cherished, not forgotten. He’s been a great captain and a great batsman and he’s played through considerable physical pain and in charge of a team of rebellious larrikins”.
23rd over: Australia 66-0 (Rogers 23, Warner 41). A change of ends for Finn, who replaces Stokes at the Pavilion End. He bowls a fuller length at Warner and with Cook maintaining an attacking offside field, and there are shouts from the crowd – but no players – for a catch by Root at third slip when Warner edges in his direction, but it had bounced well short. Warner is then hurried up by a back of a length ball that he mistimes and misses as it rears into his thigh. This is better from Finn.
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22nd over: Australia 66-0 (Rogers 23, Warner 41). Rogers is watchful against Ali, staying in the crease and playing late. Ali of course was the only wicket-taker the last time a morning’s play carried this kind of pattern, back at Lord’s. But there’s been none of the sort of reckless nonsense that delivered that particular scalp on this occasion. There is, instead, a maiden.
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21st over: Australia 66-0 (Rogers 23, Warner 41). Stokes continues, with Australia looking to go for their shots a little more now, as Warner demonstrates by walloping across the line with force and confidence for four more. Another boundary ensues with a flick past the slips from an in-slanting delivery that sought to cramp Warner up. The Barmy Army band are playing “Yesterday”, which seems a tad melodramatic.
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20th over: Australia 58-0 (Rogers 23, Warner 33). Our first sighting of spin comes with Moeen Ali replacing Finn. And conceding four from his first ball, Rogers cutting a short ball behind square for four. He also adds a flicked two on the legside. There’s some bounce and spin there though.
19th over: Australia 52-0 (Rogers 17, Warner 33). Warner gets three more with a composed drive, but Stokes has bowled decently and comes back at Rogers with a lovely outswinger that confounds and beats him. He then squares him up in front of his stumps but Rogers is able to get bat on it and gain a squirted single backward of square on the offside. Warner drives to the long boundary on the onside for a four that’s confirmed on TV replay, Broad having dived into the ropes while retrieving it, and Australia are past 50 way before lunch after all that. But both chances and runs are coming more freely now, and Warner thick edges in the air towards point but it just drops a yard short.
18th over: Australia 44-0 (Rogers 16, Warner 26). Finn concedes the first no-ball of the match through over-stepping. Warner adds another single with an easy drive to mid-on. Rogers then helps himself to his third boundary with a nice back-foot drive on the offside for four. This is good Test-match batting by these two, who now look mostly comfortable, though Finn squares up Rogers with a decent comeback ball that jolts away past his outside edge.
It looks as if Australia will reach 50 by lunch now anyhow, but talk of slow starts has stirred James Thomas’s memory: “On 30 August, 1979, Geoff Boycott and Alan Butcher (playing in his only test) put on a first wicket partnership of 45, very slowly. This was at the Oval. I have a feeling it may have been 45-0 at lunch, but that might be a false memory. Either way I was watching the game in South Wales and had earlier that year suffered a bout of chicken-pox.” Details of that one here, which tell us that England had positively raced to 245-5 by the end of the day
17th over: Australia 38-0 (Rogers 12, Warner 25). Warner clips Stokes down to the boundary where Finn makes a fine stop to prevent the four. It’s a single instead. Rogers picks up four more with a slightly fortuitous edge between slip and gully from a good back of a length delivery slanted in at him. A loose play-and-miss follows, which prompts some hopeful appeals, but the shot wasn’t good enough to have caught an edge, frankly. A good over.
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16th over: Australia 33-0 (Rogers 8, Warner 24). Warner tries what could be his first properly risky shot of the morning, pulling across the line and in the air towards mid-on but getting away with it, and getting two runs. Finn comes back at him with a fierce accurate bouncer that Warner does very well to duck away from. He also induces a rather unconvincing inside-edge towards square leg that Warner nonetheless adds a single from.
15th over: Australia 30-0 (Rogers 8, Warner 21). It’s quite possible Australia could reach lunch without reaching 50. When did that last happen after a full morning’s play on a first day? Having said that, this over features the first two boundaries of the morning – a rasping pull shot square on the legside for four by Warner, and an effortless drive on the offside for four by Rogers in addition to a two and a one for Warner. So I’ve put the mockers on that stat-gasm there.
Some words on bowling first at The Oval, by one who might know about these things:
14th over: Australia 19-0 (Rogers 4, Warner 13). Rogers is getting all his runs in hurried singles – another comes at the start of this over following a defensive push – while Warner gets another one with a nudge to backward square leg. And that’s drinks. As Atherton points out, at this stage at Trent Bridge Australia were 38-7.
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13th over: Australia 17-0 (Rogers 3, Warner 13). Rogers cuts and misses at an outswinger from Stokes that finds more bounce than the batsman was expecting. Rogers is also struck on the back by a short delivery that thwacks him on the back and runs down to fine leg for a leg-bye, and then Warner is beaten by an absolute beauty - perhaps the best ball of the morning - of an outswinger. There is a sense that these openers are seeking to hit the shorter and wider deliveries now we’re nearly an hour in but even though there’s been the odd miss they’re both playing wisely and well.
12th over: Australia 16-0 (Rogers 3, Warner 13). We have a double change of bowling, Finn coming on at his (presumably favoured) Vauxhall End. His first ball is short-ish and met with that strange wristy – sometimes risky – flick of Warner’s that brings him a single on this occasion. Rogers take another quick single.
Josh Robinson meanwhile corrects my horribly faulty memory about rest days: “For some reason very few people seem to remember this, but rest days continued in England (albeit not for all Tests) until the mid-90s. If I remember correctly, for their last few years there was only one Test a summer with a rest day, and it was invariably (and I have no idea why) the first Test of July. The last one I remember was the third Test against India at Trent Bridge in 1996. Oh well, if you can remember the early 90s, you weren’t there. Or something.
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11th over: Australia 14-0 (Rogers 2, Warner 12). We have a first bowling change, Stokes replacing Broad at the Pavilion End. He too is round the wicket at Rogers, who gets on the front foot for a change to drive straight but Stokes fields smartly to prevent any runs. It’s a maiden.
Warne has spoken about The Mural:
10th over: Australia 14-0 (Rogers 2, Warner 12). Warner tries one of his foolhardy onside jabs for the first time this morning, prodding a Wood delivery towards mid-on. He’s then caught on the top of the pad by an inswinger, which the bowler appeals for but no one else does as it’s too high. Warner, having been praised for his caution, slashes and misses at a wide slanting outswinger, and there’s just a sense he want to get the scoreboard ticking over a bit more. A clipped single to square leg ensues, and then Rogers doubles his total with a scampered single to mid-off.
Robert Wilson thinks Australia have won the commentary Ashes, or rather their former captain has: “Australians shouldn’t despair about a summer of under-performance because it has to be said that Ricky Ponting has walked the Commentary Ashes. Despite having to pick up the slack for Warne’s chunterings (more a public service film about the symptomology of a range of serious personality deficits than sports commentary) or Gower’s tumultuous lack of interest, Ponting’s been magisterial. That face with its permanent thousand yard stare, that grim half-smile at all the horror. He’s been a melancholy Tolstoy.
And now he’s gone home. I’m absolutely dreading Warne’s first stint at the microphone. I have a very bad feeling about this. The Cummins thing might be the last Warney straw, He’s been building up steam....”
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9th over: Australia 12-0 (Rogers 1, Warner 11). Australia have a “slightly different” attitude so far, says Atherton in the commentary box, wildly understating things. Though Warner is able to cut a loose one in front of square on the offside for three. Rogers does try a more expansive shot when hooking and missing at Broad. Cook brings in a short leg, who’s called into action when Rogers flicks one into the ground and at him.
“On the topic of standardised pitches,” writes Ed Round, “much of the variability comes down to the weather conditions. Temperature and humidity are known to affect swing bowling, and a damp pitch will dry to create havoc-inducing cracks for the team that bats last. So, to standardise conditions, the only sensible solution is to build an indoor cricket megadome in Dubai and hold all test matches there. Pitches of different types (flat, turning, seaming) could be dropped in, with the choice going to the captain who won the toss. It would also have the advantage of avoiding rain and light delays.”
Please, please don’t give them ideas like this Ed.
8th over: Australia 9-0 (Rogers 1, Warner 8). Wood isn’t quite as accurate with this over, aside from a slanting outswinger that zips past Rogers’ defensive prod, but the runs aren’t flowing, though Australia won’t be too perturbed by that.
An anecdotal counter to the ‘whinging Aussies’ narrative comes from Patrick O’Brien: “I’m currently in Oz on hols and haven’t heard anyone blame pitches or unfair clouds. They’ve all been critical of the batsmen’s inability to adapt.”
7th over: Australia 9-0 (Rogers 1, Warner 8). Cook gets his funk on, field-placings wise, by bringing in a silly mid-off for Warner, but the opener remains uncharacteristically cautious, hitting little that doesn’t need to be hit. Broad does finally trouble Warner with a smart outswinger, which induces a play and miss. But Australia have lasted a whole 30 of your English minutes without losing a wicket. And scoring a mere nine runs.
6th over: Australia 9-0 (Rogers 1, Warner 8). A hurried Warner single starts Wood’s over before Rogers is startled somewhat by one that rears up at him and he has to push away off the back foot, and is then beaten all ends up by a jaffa. This is a bright, sparky start from the Durham bowler - mixing up yorkers, back of a length balls and inswingers and outswingers. He almost gets his reward with the final ball of the over, which finds Rogers’ edge but falls just short of Alastair Cook at slip.
On the subject of playing conditions, here’s Christian Cummins with a tennis comparison: “I was listening to a BBC podcast when they were discussing having ‘standardized pitches’ across the globe. I was listening as I was cycling home from a game of tennis here in Vienna where everyone plays on slow clay courts. Playing on a clay court, I lose a lot of the skills that as I learned as a kid and instead I am in the (painful) process of learning totally new ones. But the world’s great tennis players learned to adapt their games to the conditions - Nadal to win Wimbledon and Federerer to win the French Open. It would be boring if all tennis courts were the same surface and I think the same is absolutely true of cricket. Australia saying swinging pitches are “unfair” would be like Nadal bullying on clay courts and saying grass tennis was unfair.”
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5th over: Australia 8-0 (Rogers 1, Warner 7). Broad hasn’t quite got his line consistently right yet, a couple too wide outside off stump and the odd stray ball down leg (one of which is exceedingly well taken by Buttler, diving to his right). Warner adds another single with little more than a defensive nudge towards point. Rogers is then beaten for pace by one that’s pushed in at him from wide of the crease by Broad.
“So this series has had less play on Sundays than series where no play was scheduled for Sunday????” multiple question-marks Dale Sellers. “Now THAT is a statgasm of the highest order.” I might need a lie down after that one.
4th over: Australia 7-0 (Rogers 1, Warner 6). Rogers squirts a juicy Wood inswinger down to fine leg for one to get off the mark, but is then beaten for pace and bounce by a zesty delivery slanted across him. An excellent yorker follows, which is dug out with equal skill by Warner. But he adds three more to complete the over.
Another counter to Brendan Jones’s statblast: “In the not too distant past, when I was a kid going to Old Trafford, in the 70s, tests weren’t played on a Sunday. They did Thurs, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tues. That will make the stats for play on a Sunday rather unreliable.” Was it 1987, in fact, when they stopped having rest days here? This should prompt another stat-cascade.
3rd over: Australia 3-0 (Rogers 0, Warner 3). Broad, from around the wicket again, almost tempts Warner with an outswinger that the batsman almost nibbles. Warner is able to leave most of the over though. without ever looking as if doing so is his natural game. Which it isn’t of course, but some decent leaving thus far from Australia, which in itself feels like an achievement given what’s gone before this summer. A maiden.
2nd over: Australia 3-0 (Rogers 0, Warner 3). Wood opens up from the Vauxhall End to Warner and gets some decent inswinging movement off the seam with his first ball, which Warner bunts back defensively. He’s off the mark next ball with an assertive push down the ground for two. It’s a reasonably probing over from Wood though, making the batsman play and Warner drives for another single to round it off.
“In past years, test matches always started on Thursdays,” writes John Arbuckle on Brendan Jones’s stat-bomb. “This year, the 1st and 3rdtests started on Weds.This will have a bearing on Brendan Jones stats re weekend play – not comparing like with like and all that boring scientific due diligence.” When did stat-nerdery become so scientific and serious?
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1st over: Australia 0-0 (Rogers 0, Warner 0). Broad is around the wicket straight away at Rogers. He gets decent bounce and carry, as you expect and kind of demand at The Oval. Bumble, perhaps bravely, says he wouldn’t be surprised if this is a high-scoring game. Rogers is watchful and sees out the first five deliveries before he’s rapped on the pad with the final ball of the over, which prompts an appeal from Broad but no one else is interested, because it was going down the legside. A maiden to start us off.
By the way, here’s a rather nice tribute to Rogers by our art critic Russell Jackson:
And out they come, to the usual Jerusalem fanfare. Here’s a juicy stat to get us going, from Brendan Jones, albeit not one to cheer Saturday or Sunday ticket-holders: “In the 4 Tests so far, a total of 48 hours of cricket was scheduled to be played on the weekends. But a grand total of only 16 hours and 30 minutes of play has occurred on the weekends, not due to weather interruptions but because the matches have been completed. This means only 34% of the scheduled weekend match time has been played, the lowest ever in a post-War Test series in England.”
There’ll almost certainly be more talk of pitches and conditions today (and, if the game lasts that long, tomorrow and Saturday), and here. Anthony Pease gets the ball rolling:
I have an inkling it’s just press hyperbole - I’d not like to be judged by the content of any tabloid headline from over here - but this hoo-ha about doctored pitches coming from many Australian outlets seems a bit rich. I’m no groundsman, but I imagine that one of the features of touring England & Wales is the necessity to play in English (& Welsh) conditions.
Is it the consensus of your Australian listeners that us Poms are just a bunch of pitch-doctoring cheats, or that the side that got sent over doesn’t have the gumption to bat a Test innings against a moving ball, and bowl the right length? Or somewhere in-between?
For what it’s worth, I heard from someone on the radio that a few proper first class warm-up matches against Ireland and the Netherlands would have helped, and I find it hard to see that as anything other than a brilliant idea for all involved.
Well, conditions are as conditions do. New Zealand did OK in them earlier in the summer. And England themselves need to cope with unfamiliar surrounds in their next series in the UAE rather more competently than they did last time.
On rather more serious TalkingPoint matters, here’s some phone footage of a protest they did earlier:
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The teams in full
England: Lyth, Cook, Bell, Root, Bairstow, Stokes, Buttler, Ali, Broad, Wood, Finn.
Australia: Rogers, Warner, Smith, Clarke, Voges, Marsh, Nevill, Johnson, Siddle, Starc, Lyon.
In the commentary box, Shane Warne is a deeply unhappy bunny, again, about Australia’s selection. This is the team that should have played at Trent Bridge, thunders our man of art, but Cummins – set to tour Bangladesh – should be in here.
Team news: For Australia, Mitchell Marsh is in for Shaun Marsh, and Peter Siddle (whom we are contractually obliged to describe as a Sturdy Warhorse) comes in for Josh Hazelwood. In his interview with Michael Atherton, Michael Clarke again kind of distances himself from the selection process, talking of the choices being made for him.
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England win the toss and will bowl
Clarke calls heads, coin says tails. England bowl again. And yes, it looks cloudy and seamy out there. Disgraceful meteorological bias.
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Anyone fancy another three-day Test? Might be for the best:
Some early musings from you, the public: “We all enjoy the good fun and moral callisthenics of sedentary men of a certain age (and BMI) abusing the talents and even physiques of world class athletes,” posits Robert Wilson. “But the abuse of Michael Clarke has been something special. The assembly of social media endomorphs seem to find him absolutely beyond the pale. What is it about this world-class, good-looking, record-breaking international sportsman that annoys them so? Can it really be the freckles?” And another bit of Australian boosterism from Martin Sinclair: “I think the Aussies will win this Test. With the series over, it is hard to maintain the same intensity whereas the Aussies will be desperate to salvage some pride. Hope I’m wrong, mind.”
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Preamble
Morning everyone. In the aftermath of 2005 and all that, The Oval marketed itself relentlessly with the strapline “Where the Ashes were won”, as if merely entering the grand old ground would guarantee spectators an experience akin to KP’s 158, Warne’s drop, Lee’s bouncers and umpires dithering over when to remove the bails. But if it felt a bit desperate, it was kind of understandable. Ashes series are all too rarely won at The Oval. In the past 40 years, the series has been done and dusted before its south London conclusion on all but three occasions (1985, 2005 and 2009), so Kennington is more commonly “where the final places for the winter tour are hammered out”. It’s a dead rubber paradise, this place.
But dead rubber Ashes matches can be fun too. Only two years ago, for example, we had the fun and games of Michael Clarke’s result-chasing declaration and England, inspired by Pietersen in what was to prove his final home Test, almost chasing down a target in the encroaching gloom before the umpires decided to send us all home. There was also England’s slightly chaotic three-day win here in 1997, and a more impressive one at Sydney in 2003, one of the great unheralded Test matches of this century, and one that, it could be argued, contained the seeds of what was to come in 2005.
Australia are rather less proficient at winning the insignificant ones. Even their imperious greats under Border, Taylor and Waugh sometimes put their feet up when series were won – dead-rubber duffers indeed. But with a series emphatically lost, you’d expect/hope this year’s tourists might have reasons to go for it now to restore heavily wounded pride – even if this match might have a feel of ceremonial guard-changing, with teary farewells due from Michael Clarke and Chris Rogers, and who knows who else? England, meanwhile, haven’t won four Tests in an Ashes series since 1978-79, when they hammered a greatly Packer-depleted Australia 5-1. They may not get a better chance than here.
They will have to make do without Jimmy Anderson, though, while Australia are deprived of a seamer of their own, Josh Hazelwood, who has had an underwhelming series in any case. Pat Cummins and Peter Siddle are standing by. This could all be quite unpredictable. Just like each of the other Tests in this series then.
I don’t know much about art but…
In a week of cricketing weirdness, in which among other things a South Africa team dossier was posted under the door of an unsuspecting hotel guest, nothing quite hit the spot like Shane Warne’s specially commissioned celebrity barbecue mural-cum prog rock album cover gone wrong. So while we’re waiting for the action to start why not find out what our some-time Australian art critic Russell Jackson had to say about it. Contains the words “modern-day last supper”. As well it should.
Pray silence…
Striking a serious note, the Change Cricket campaign, initiated by the makers of the essential new film Death of a Gentleman, has organised a three-minute silent protest today against the ICC’s big-three carve up. The demo is due to take place outside the Hobbs Gate at The Oval at 10am, so if you’re reading this while milling around the ground, you may wish to stop milling RIGHT NOW and stride purposefully over to join them. And I shall respectfully not post during this period.
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