Wasteful Australia take upper hand as bowlers fire

Despite a succession of self-inflicted wounds during an error-strewn day in the field, Australia's hopes of a first Ashes series win in England since 2001 remain realistic after they bowled out England for 283 and reduced that margin by 61 runs for the loss of a solitary wicket at The Oval.

After skipper Pat Cummins won his first coin toss of the series and celebrated by sending England into bat, the day's fortunes ebbed and flowed in keeping with the entire compelling campaign before Australia's batters could claim to have given them a narrow lead by mostly negotiating the final two hours.

The exception was out-of-luck opener David Warner who was caught at second slip off Chris Woakes for 24, the seventh time in 11 innings of this UK tour (including the World Test Championship final against India) he's reached 20 with a solitary half-century for his efforts.

In the face of another fiery spell from Mark Wood and Stuart Broad getting the ball to swing late on a cloud-covered day, Usman Khawaja stood firm to reach stumps 26 not out from 75 balls faced and will resume tomorrow with fourth Test century maker Marnus Labuschagne (two not out) and their team 222 runs adrift.

Australia's position might have easily been even more solid if not for a poor day in the field that saw five catches go down – the most costly being Alex Carey's miss off Harry Brook – and a run out chance squandered.

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But they also showed they learned from the carnage at Old Trafford where they seemed bereft of ideas when England's batters came at them hard and plundered runs at the rate of five an over, as was the case again today.

The most notable difference was the potency of Cummins who regularly threatened to take top-order wickets and should have returned better figures than 1-66, while fellow quick Starc was the stand-out with 4-82 to claim the mantle of series leading wicket-taker.

Every time England appeared likely to mount the sort of run glut that was the feature of the fourth Test before it drowned, their rivals were able to conjure a response whether it was fast bowlers adapting their plans or the implementation of spinner Todd Murphy who claimed two crucial scalps.

And while 283 was more than Australia's bowlers might have conceded given the regularity with which they created opportunities, it could also have been significantly more had their opponents taken advantage of comparatively strong positions at 0-62 and then 3-184.

Indeed, when England were bowled out shortly before 4.30pm on a day that threatened rain but only managed low cloud and dim light, it was difficult to work out which team might have felt they had let more opportunities slip by.

With six bungled chances during their 54.4 overs in the field, Australia tendered a persuasive case for being most profligate.

But having been sent into bat upon losing the toss for the first time in the series, England could counter-argue they had been equally wasteful due to a couple of clusters when wickets fell at the same sort of pace they continued to score.

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The first was the 3-11 they surrendered in the space of 22 balls after a sprightly opening stand of 62 in 12 overs, with the damage done by Cummins who put paid to suggestions he was spent after a few tough days at Old Trafford by unleashing his fastest spell of the series.

But that mini-collapse might have read 4-16 in 29 deliveries had keeper Carey hung on to Brook's edged drive off Cummins when England's eventual top scorer had scored five and the total was a wobbly 3-78.

Like many of the missed chances throughout the day, it seemed a straightforward chance that Carey opted to try and take in one glove as he dived low to his right, his head immediately cradled in both gauntlets as the ball spilled free and the sold-out crowd roared its delight.

Cummins continued to threaten as he adopted a shorter length then new-ball pair Starc and Josh Hazlewood, but the exuberant Brook was not about to retreat into his shell and launched his counter-attack against the skipper and allrounder Mitchell Marsh operating from the opposite end.

A thumping drive through cover registered England's 100 at the start of the 22nd over, and was followed immediately by an audacious flick over mid-wicket for six off Marsh that was pure timing.

With Moeen playing defensive foil, England's fourth-wicket pair not only shored up their team's position after the clatter of wickets but put their noses back in front with the score 3-131 at lunch.

Brook should then have been run out having reached 50 soon after resumption.

He bunted a ball from Cummins to extra cover and took off immediately for an ill-judged run, but the bowler's exemplary gather, spin and throw was let down solely by the fact he missed the non-striker's end stumps with the batter well short.

But it was another more-comfortably completed single next over that might deliver a more significant outcome in terms of this series finale.

Moeen had been the less explosive partner in the union with Brook and given no indication of any sort of injury until he seemed to shorten stride as he completed a simple run, immediately calling for medical treatment on his right leg.

The 36-year-old was clearly inconvenienced from that moment and, despite switching to white-ball mode and unleashing a series of heavy blows including a couple of belligerent blows that cleared the boundary, his defiance brought him undone when Murphy entered the fray.

In just his second Ashes appearance, Murphy had returned to the field during the lunch break to prepare for his bowling stint with a brief trundle before engaging in a chat with coach Andrew McDonald and bowling coach Daniel Vettori.

After dragging down his first two deliveries when summoned to the crease, the young off-spinner found more flight and a quicker pace with his third that induced Moeen into a wild leg-side heave which clattered into the top of middle.

It was as much a reward for Cummins' captaincy as it was the 22-year-old's nerve amid the batting offensive and it triggered the beginning of the end for England who lost 7-99 in 21 overs to a mixture of masterful bowling and death-or-glory shot selection.

It was the former that accounted for skipper Ben Stokes who lost his off-stump when he tried to work an out-swinger from Starc through the leg-side, and last week's tormentor Jonny Bairstow who fell in the same manner as Root.

While Bairstow might argue he was simply unfortunate his healthy inside edge took out leg stump instead of bringing a boundary, it's a mode of dismissal that had loomed large throughout the series and was brought about by Hazlewood's combination of full length and late in-swing.

That dismissal also meant Brook was left to shoulder the specialist batting burden with only all-rounders and tailenders for company, and only 20 runs separating him from a maiden Ashes century.

The 24-year-old appeared unsurprisingly up for the challenge when he produced a textbook straight drive off Starc to reach 85, but perished next ball when the left-armer pushed wide across him and an extravagant drive with minimal foot movement proved a fatal hybrid.

After the 111-run stand (from 108 balls) between Brook and Moeen had given England impetus due to the rate at which they scored, the latter's dismissal after he became hobbled saw Australia seize control by claiming 4-28 in nine overs as the ball began to swing.

Sensing it was a case of hit out or get out, Woakes and Wood opted for plan A and by tea they had fashioned an eighth-wicket stand of 38 from 45 balls that featured a mix of orthodox strokeplay and brute strength.

Australia muffed another chance to stem the flow immediately after the break when Woakes sliced a head-high catch off Starc to Marsh in the gully who saw the ball hit his hands at pace before it rolled towards the boundary rope.

That reprieve came two balls after Woakes had been adjudged lbw but, after a lengthy mid-pitch conversation and a belated decision to enact the DRS process, he was able to continue his innings on 15 when it was shown he had edged the ball on to his pad.

But it was Cummins' decision to recall Murphy that again landed Australia a sorely-needed breakthrough, the spinner unfurling a far more demonstrative celebration when he replicated his earlier dismissal by defeating Wood's hefty swing and rattling his stumps.

England's last two wickets then fell in prescribed 'Bazball' fashion to unedifying slogs that soared high into the air, with both caught by Travis Head.

It was Head who, in the lead-up to the final Test, had noted his team's best hope of wresting back momentum surrendered to England at Old Trafford was to ensure "whatever we do first, we do it well".

For the only time in the series, after Cummins stuck with his conviction to keep calling tails at the coin toss, Australia were granted the choice of doing what they wanted at the outset of the game and – in the opening hour – they duly made a meal of it.

Given the first over of all four preceding matches in this campaign have yielded a boundary, and in the immediate wake of Zak Crawley's blazing 189 in Manchester, the odds he would play out a maiden from Starc at today's outset would surely have stretched beyond juicy.

But with that anomaly out of the way, abnormal service was resumed as England's openers set about restoring a run rate of five an over although it was mostly achieved by smartly run singles and doubles rather than a cavalcade of crashing boundaries.

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Australia felt they had Crawley on four when he shouldered arms to a late-inswinger from Starc that was shown to be missing the stumps on the fielding team's review, as England embarked on a spree whereby 16 consecutive deliveries sent down by wayward bowlers yielded a score of some sort.

The sense of sloppiness was heightened when Ben Duckett (on 30) drove lustily at Cummins' first delivery of the day and the resultant edge flew head-high to Warner at slip only to burst through the normally reliable catcher's clasped hands.

It was a scene reminiscent of the series-defining final Ashes Test at the same venue in 2005 when Shane Warne's near-identical miss at first slip off Kevin Pietersen signalled the urn was destined to change hands.

Crawley's lucky break came an over later when (on 11) Marsh entered the attack and his third delivery took the edge of the opener's angled bat and flew despairingly wide of second slip where Steve Smith's spectacular aerial dive to his right got only fingertips to the ball as it flew past.

But unlike England's summer weather, fortune quickly changed and that coincided with a belated shift in Australia's bowling plans.

Having gained first use of a new pitch in helpful conditions, the visitors' quicks had pitched full in the expectation the ball would swing or nip off the seam.

However, when that didn't happen the ploy just played to England's batting strengths and it wasn't until Cummins and Hazlewood pulled back their lengths and bashed the ball into the green-tinged but dry pitch that results came.

The first was a bonus breakthrough with Duckett gloving a catch off his hip that was only confirmed after Australia's canny review, but Crawley's was definitive four balls later when he edged to rather than past Smith.

When Joe Root's attempted dab behind the wicket on the off-side brought him only a set of scattered stumps - as it had a couple of times in the practice nets prior to the Test – a morning session that appeared set to slip through Australia's fingers was back within their grasp.

Until an over later when Carey's lacklustre effort returned the error ledger in England's favour and fitted neatly with the series narrative of no team being able to seize control for any time, or with any authority.

2023 Qantas Ashes Tour of the UK

First Test: Australia won by two wickets

Second Test: Australia won by 43 runs

Third Test: England won by three wickets

Fourth Test: Match drawn

Fifth Test: Thursday July 27-Monday 31, The Oval

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, David Warner

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood