Key events
Five overs lost!
The umpires have now said they miscalculated when they let it be known that there were 52 overs to be bowled. It should have been 47, and we’ve already had three of those, so now it’s 44. Cricket, eh.
71st over: Australia 256-3 (Smith 44, Head 41) The Barmy Army start singing, although their tune of choice is “Barmy Army”, which may not be the way to galvanise the players. Woakes continues and the batters find three singles, the last one a pull from Head, more controlled than some of his efforts earlier in the series.
“Has Broad got one last spell in him?” asks Mike Atherton, speaking for the nation. “One last magical spell. What a story that would be.”
70th over: Australia 253-3 (Smith 43, Head 39) It’s still Moeen, who does better. A single, a couple of dots, another single and then a really good ball, turning into Smith and beating his forward defensive. If only it hadn’t struck the pad just outside the line. Australia need 131 more runs.
69th over: Australia 251-3 (Smith 42, Head 38) Woakes is still in top form. The first ball of this over is another beauty, angled in, moving away late, beating Smith again. The second is the nip-backer, thudding into the thigh pad. The third is less good, a wild outswinger which Bairstow can only turn past the slips, conceding a bye. The fourth is another jaffa to Head, beating him outside off. He keeps calm, carries on and hits an on-drive for four! Good retort. But Broad must be desperate to bowl now…
68th over: Australia 246-3 (Smith 42, Head 34) At the other end, flagrantly disregarding the OBO’s advice, Stokes sticks with Moeen. Well, he does owe him one. Head is straight on the attack, cutting for two, then glancing for three – leg-byes, in fact, and a good save by Root, diving into the sponge to flick the ball back to the next man. A single to each batter. Eight off the over, without liberties being taken: England can’t afford many more like that.
67th over: Australia 238-3 (Smith 40, Head 31) Woakes starts with a wide one, easily left, although swinging away, to give England some hope. It’s followed by two better balls, making Smith play: he blocks both. And then the ripper – lifting and leaving Smith, beating the bat, making the crowd go ooh. Smith bounces back, getting well forward for the first time in the over to smother the movement, before adding one more solid block.
Stokes gave Woakes only two slips, which tells us he’s worried about the run rate.
The ball is in the hands of … Chris Woakes.
The players take the field and Stuart Broad gets one more ovation. It won’t be his last, even if he carries on not taking wickets. It’s lucky Theresa May is no longer prime minister, or we might have seen an emergency knighthood.
Before the action resumes, a thought from John Starbuck. “While I believe in the Aesop-style Tortoise and the Hare fable as the appropriate analogy for this series,” he says, “what really wrecked it was the decision to cram a five-Test sequence into such a short time. Bowlers, in particular, had little time to recover and that’s why there have been so many injuries on both sides. The moneymen, in trying to squeeze cash out of a short series (so as to enable more matches in other formats), have just about killed the golden goose, to go to a different story. Let’s hope that, by the time the next Ashes comes around, they will have learned the lesson about quarts and pint pots.” Agreed – though the captains and coaches could surely have done some more rotation. Josh Tongue was robbed!
“You Are The Captain,” says Thomas Atkins. “You’re Ben Stokes. It’s 6:30pm. Australia are 6 or 7 down and need 50-odd. The murk’s drawing in and the umpires have told you that you can only bowl spinners from here on out. Do you take the honourable draw and 2-1 defeat or do you go all in and chuck the ball to Root and a crocked Moeen Ali?” You’re Ben Stokes! You put Root or Moeen on at one end and yourself at the other, bowling the off-breaks that you practised in the nets before the game. Or leg-breaks. Or, if Alex Carey is batting, a bit of under-arm.
Unexpected sighting in the Oval area: the sun. If play does resume at 4.20pm, we will have lost 18 overs, which means there are 52 to go, in theory. Even with a white ball, that would take until about 8 o’clock.
An email with a few levels to it. “I am traveling with family to South India,” says Pramith Pillai, “to perform rites for my dad who died seven years ago this month.” Ah, feeling for you. “You, James, others I missed and the OBO legend Rob Smyth were like a rock I could cling on during this unpredictable & memorable Ashes journey. I hate the month of July, but you lot and both these teams made it a lot more bearable.” Too kind. But quite right about Rob, who never seems to know how good he is.
“Let’s hope Smithy gets enough time to win this match for the Aussies.” No comment. “Thanks again for everything.” Our pleasure. “Looking forward to more posts on your United Writing substack. Take care.” Now you’re going too far, but thanks. And I hope the rites go as well as they can.
Asking for a friend.
Play will resume in 20 minutes
…. as long as there’s no further rain.
“It’s England,” says Christopher Pickles, “so at any time, however well you are playing, the weather can intervene. So you can’t afford to be matches down, certainly not 2-0 down. The only time in the Ashes that a team came back to win from 0-2 was in Australia, 1936-37, where at that time all Tests were timeless. In England it was never realistically on.”
Well, some of the drama Stokes laid on for us last year wasn’t realistic either. Realism isn’t really his genre, but I do take most of your point. England messed up badly by losing the first Test, knowing that Australia always raise their game at Lord’s. They didn’t leave themselves enough margin for weather.
“Boycottian optimism?” says the next email, which is one way to catch the eye of the copy-taster. “Anticipating a marathon session to finish the series after an early tea,” says Tony Killen, “and trying to think positive thoughts around that favourite old saying of Boycott’s: ‘Just think how it would look if there were two quick wickets to go down’.”
If they were Smith and Head, England really would be favourites.
WinViz doesn’t always take account of the weather, but it is now. In fact, it’s where the action is. Latest percentages: England 44, Australia 29, the draw 27. Like Stokes, their algorithm is placing a lot of faith in some elderly seamers.
Inspection at 4pm!
The umpires will hold an inspection at 4pm, in about 15 minutes. The covers are being removed, a process which, at some grounds, means lots of wheels turning. At the Oval, it’s more like changing the sheets on the kingsize bed you bought in the sales and now secretly regret.
“New ball, yes, another one,” John Jones points out, “in 14 overs. The most English of English conditions and the lights on. And you think Australia can do it? If so it will be one of the most remarkable wins in their history.” It will!
And you’re right, a lot hinges on the conditions now. Let’s work out who Stokes should open with… He needs to keep Woakes and Broad fresh for the new ball, so how about two overs each for them. Then Anderson and Wood – or Stokes himself, with his golden arm and his busted leg.
“So,” says Jeremy Boyce, “we will soon know how all the loose ends of this series and match will tie up to bring us to a conclusion. Except that ‘denouement’ means exactly the opposite, the untying of all the knots and putting the ‘string’ in order. Who has tied who in knots in this series? They have both done it to each other and there is still time for more ’twixt cup and lip.
“I have to say, I’m not sure the timing of the Bandana Bomshell on live TV exactly helped the England lads focus next morning. Like David Bowie killing off Ziggy live on stage before the band even knew. Of course Ziggy/Bowie went on to greater things, whereas the band (who were a similarly unique and great bunch of lads)…” Ha.
Bowie was a well-liked boss but a ruthless one. In the mould of Eoin Morgan, though possibly more tolerant on the drugs front. Ben Stokes is not so ruthless – in fact, behind that rugged exterior, he’s a big softie.
A good question… and a persuasive answer.
@TimdeLisle Hey Tim, if The Oval Test goes to draw because of all the overs lost to weather, which team would lament more, ENG or AUS?
I think it’s got to be ENG because they had enough time to try to bowl AUS out and yet got no wickets yesterday.— Penwhale/ソフ (@penwhale) July 31, 2023
The rain has … eased!
We have another component of a cliffhanger: the good old British weather. “Better news,” says Ian Ward. “The rain has eased.” Go on… “We could have the prospect of taking an early tea.” Classic.
Some overs will be lost, Ward adds, but there were 70 to go when the rain came. And (this is me speaking, not him) Australia won’t need anything like that to make 146 runs. They’ve found the right rhythm after the fiasco of Friday morning and should get over the line in 35 overs. So that, or thatabouts, is how long England have to get seven wickets. It’s a big ask.
Afternoon everyone, thanks Jim and amen to that. We have one of the components of a humdinger: the result of the match, and therefore the series, is still in doubt. WinViz gives England a 45pc chance, Australia 31, the draw 24. Not sure that’s the right way round…
James Wallace
That’s it from me for today. Tim de Lisle is here to take you through the rest of the afternoon and to close out the Ashes 2023 for the good ship OBO.
It’s been a real pleasure to cover this series, truly memorable. Thanks for your company, for keeping me entertained and on my toes. Let’s hope these clouds clear off and we get the humdinging finish this series clearly deserves. Over to you, Tim.
“I think we’re about 20 minutes ahead of Oval weather.’..”
Writes Nick Holmes in leafy Wimbledon.
“You’ll be glad to know rain is easing off, and it’s brightening up as I look out of the window.”
It is a bit brighter here too, the rain is very light and the clouds have lifted a touch. It’ll still be a bit of a clean up job after the rain has moved on through to get everything ready for play though. Hopefully there will be a full and extended session after tea.
“I have been absolutely enthralled by this series, the best since or maybe better than 2005.”
Certainly worth a discussion isn’t it, Jeremy Yapp? Be good if this weather would buggar off though.
“I am Australian, living in the UK these past 16 years, so I ought to be partisan about this but I can’t imagine going back to watching Test cricket without this England team playing it. They have been joyously, flamboyantly, slightly cantankerously brilliant. And Stuart Broad has been my favourite playing cricketer (men’s game) since Ponting retired.”
“I’d be quite happy if the series just ended now with Australia winning 2-1.”
emails Kevin Wilson
“I think they would’ve won this Test without the rain (and still might!) and they’ve been the better side, just, when it mattered. 2-1 seems a better reflection of the state of things than 3-1 or 2-2. England can take a lot of heart from the series still. Some big positives but some big question marks too (*cough* Jimmy).”
We’re going to have a lengthy delay here, I don’t fancy there will be any action in this afternoon session.
The OBO mailbag is positively brimming with plenty of discussion on some of the ‘issues’ we’ve seen in this series. It feels like more and more is said and written about the Ashes every time it comes around. Here then, is something I wrote* on the story behind the 39 words that started it all.
This by @Jimbo_Cricket is fascinating and new to me: the famous obituary that started the Ashes legend in 1882 was not only a comment on the death of English cricket but used as part of a campaign to make cremation legal, which happened three years later https://t.co/VS2IcwliHp
— Patrick Kidd (@patrick_kidd) July 26, 2023
*Forgive the icky horn tooting, it’s raining innit.
“The explanation that you just printed doesn’t work.”
Richard O’Hagan not letting me slip off the hook…
“Root and Crawley might not have been aware that Stokes dropped the ball, but Stokes was certainly aware and he was the one who signalled for the review. If there is any explanation it has to be either that they thought the review would overturn the decision that he didn’t have control of the ball, or that they were hoping the ball hit pad and then glove.”
Probably both isn’t it – they were desperate for a wicket, particularly that of Smith. I don’t have a problem with Stokes reviewing at all, especially with his teammates telling him he caught it. You see what you want to see in these moments, believe what you want to believe. It all happened so fast that it would have been madness not to have another look. As it stands, the right decision was made and England lost a review for the privilege.
Fair to say that Stuart Broad’s desire for a valedictory finish to his Test match career is dividing opinion amongst everyone. Go on, admit it – you’ve got a view don’t you?
Weather update: It is raining at the Oval and the covers are on. The radar has about an hour or so of this and then it is completely clear after 4pm. How are your nerves?
You can take the fifth Ashes Test out of September, but you can’t take September out of the fifth Ashes Test
— Simon Burnton (@Simon_Burnton) July 31, 2023
“Hi James”
Hello to you Mark Pearson.
“The end result of the Stokes catch going down seems to be fairly unanimous (not out), but what about the lost review? If the umpire has given that not out because he didn’t think Smith made contact, then the dropped catch is irrelevant to the umpire’s decision. He hasn’t hit the ball, they don’t need to determine if a catch was made.
But if the umpire thought he did hit it, but didn’t think Stokes controlled the ball, wouldn’t they go upstairs to double check that themselves? It didn’t seem clear cut live that Stokes definitely wasn’t in control when the ball popped out.
As an Australian, I’d hate for this to go down as an incorrect decision by the umpires if England don’t have a review later and the Aussies go on to win the Test.”
I think this was what the conflab was as the players were walking off and Stokes was talking to the umpires. He wasn’t contesting the decision – you could see the disappointment etched on his face in the split-second after the ball had hit the floor, he knew what he had done. Rather, he was confirming with the umpires about whether England have lost a review. It seems they have. Umpire Wilson gave it not out on the field and therefore England lost a review when they asked to take another look, Root and Crawley in the slips weren’t quite aware that Stokes had lost the ball at the last and were adamant that Smith got a glove on it. They went upstairs and the grim realisation dawned on England’s players and their fans watching on the big screen.
Also: I think it’s fine for that not to be an umpire review. Joel Wilson gets some stick, but if he’s picked up what’s happened in the moment, fair enough to rule it not out, and then it’s England’s choice to challenge
— Ben Gardner (@Ben_Wisden) July 31, 2023
It is dank and grey at the Oval, bruised skies lingering. It is so clearly optimum bowling conditions which has made Australia’s performance with the bat all the more impressive.
Gah, the players emerge but scarper shortly afterwards as the rain starts to fall.
As if we didn’t have enough to cope with already:
“I can’t cope with the pressure. I’m off to bed. But I can’t help but feel there’s a number of plot twists still to come…”
Rowan Sweeney sent this from Down Under just before that incident.
“I haven’t played enough cricket to understand this, but why do players often either instantly sling the ball in the air, or occasionally just drop it on the ground after taking a catch? Maybe you can shed some more light on it for me? It feels like the sort of thing a youth team coach would drill into their players. Keep it in your hands for a few seconds. Remove any doubt.”
Yep, it is a celebration thing Mike Ward. As I mentioned below, it has happened before in a famous incident during the 1999 World Cup. After this incident cricket legend has it that Steve Waugh told Herschelle Gibbs – “You’ve just dropped the World Cup” – I didn’t see Smith mutter anything to Stokes… not his style and the moment spoke for itself.
I reckon we’ll be seeing it on Ashes montages for years to come.
BIG MOMENT: Smith dropped by Stokes, take a look for yourself.
LUNCH: Australia 238-3 (Aus require 146 runs to win)
Ben Stokes has dropped Steve Smith! Drama on the stroke of lunch – Moeen gets one to grip and it takes Smith’s glove and loops to Stokes at leg-slip… he takes the catch cleanly high above his head but the ball slips from his grasp as he brings his hand down and it flicks his knee. Shades of Herschelle Gibbs in the 1999 World Cup. The crowd cannot believe it. Stokes can’t believe what he has done – his body language was the giveaway, he didn’t have full control of the ball as it fell from his grasp like a bar of Imperial Leather in the shower. Wow. A huge let off for Smith and Australia. Scenes here at the Oval. Moeen sends down four dots as the crowd is still reeling at the replay. A single to Smith off the last ball. That is lunch.
What a morning of cricket.
66th over: Australia 238-3 (Smith 40, Head 31)
65th over: Australia 237-3 (Smith 38, Head 31) Wood sends down an over of short-stuff which restricts Australia to a single. There’s some drama coming up here…
64th over: Australia 236-3 (Smith 38, Head 31) Moeen gets too straight and is flicked away extremely fine for four runs. A hush descends over the Oval. Australia have stolen all the momentum back here and this partnership rattles into the 60s.
63rd over: Australia 231-3 (Smith 33, Head 31) Shot! Smith drives emphatically for four. Wood went full for a change and Smith leapt on it in a flash. England reeling a bit here, Australia looking more comfortable with every ball.
62nd over: Australia 225-3 (Smith 28, Head 30) A couple of singles off Moeen, England have the field set back, clearly concerned about how quickly this pair have been racking them up. We won’t have lunch until 1.25pm btw – due to the late start.
61st over: Australia 223-3 (Smith 27, Head 29) Mark Wood for a final blast before lunch. England look a bit weary, they’ll be the more glad of the two teams to get a break. Australia look confident, collecting runs with relative ease. Sharp! Wood thuds one into Head’s glove, the batter does well to keep it down and take a single to get off strike. Smith pulls away to the boundary rider for a single. I don’t want to give English fans the heebie-jeebies before they settle down for a sarnie but Smith is looking ominously imperious here.
60th over: Australia 221-3 (Smith 26, Head 28) Some shot from Steve Smith, he leans on a full-ish ball from Moeen and threads it with laser-like precision between two fielders in the deep. Close! Sharp turn back into the pads, Smith was a goner without the inside edge of his blade saving him. A tense hush settles over the ground as Moeen ambles in, everyone inside the Oval is rapt by the action. More grip and fizz, this time it goes down the leg-side and the Aussies scamper a couple. The target down to 163 needed for Australia.
59th over: Australia 215-3 (Smith 21, Head 27) Oh my days. Broad beats Head with a jaffa that leaves him at the last only to see his next ball flicked away nonchalantly for four behind square. Cat and Mouse. Stu and Trav. Head tries to hook a nifty bouncer and nearly gets a glove through to Bairstow. The crowd groan, it’s been a riveting morning of cricket. Here comes Moeen Ali for a bit of twirl before lunch.
58th over: Australia 211-3 (Smith 21, Head 23) More accurate from Anderson, four dots on a good length are followed by an excellent diving stop by Mark Wood at mid-on to keep Head to just a single. He crunched that. A false shot from Smith off the last ball sees an under-edge trickle to Bairstow.
Feel that collective ‘lurching’ when it does. What even is this game?
57th over: Australia 210-3 (Smith 21, Head 22) Broad goes a touch too full to Smith and he is crunched away through extra-cover for four. These two batters looking set and dangerous, the ridiculous pendulum swinging once again in this series.
Not now weather!
56th over: Australia 206-3 (Smith 17, Head 22) What’s that fluttering sound? It’s the butterflies flapping their winds in the guts of 20,000 English cricket fans here at the Oval. Travis Head goes on the attack, a clip off the pads and a punch through the covers bring him back-to-back boundaries and the 200 up for Australia. FlutterFlutterFlutter…
55th over: Australia 198-3 (Smith 17, Head 14) Another good over for Australia, those three wickets got England back into the match but this is far from a done deal. Head gives a timely reminder of the fact by bunting Broad down the ground for four. We’ve got 30 mins and a crucial period of play heading here into lunch.
