Fifth Ashes Test: The Oval, 12-16 September 2019

[Arthur Crabtree]

Root goes. A desperate Ashes for him. Zero hundreds from England's premier bat. Averaging under 30 in 2019.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Archer too for me.

[Durhamfootman]

Burns finishes the series with an average of 39. Not amazing, but he has at least replaced Strauss in the short term.

Just looking for someone to replace Cook now. In terms of stats, Denly has had a poor series, but in the context of Adam Lyth etc, I guess he'll go to NZ. Feels like the grudging choice though that will be shuffled out as soon as he makes a couple of single figure scores.

This is better from England. Too late of course, and they may collapse in a pile, but a series draw would mitigate (perhaps flatteringly) the damning verdict that England have attracted. Ed Smith at least will be pleased.

Ed Smith would argue that not only were the team selections spot on, thanks mainly to his own vision, but that England would have won at Lords had it not been for the pesky rain and so would be batting now to secure a 3-2 series win

Just a bit unlucky that's all

[Durhamfootman]

Archer I would have thought. Tight!

Stokes will get it

[Durhamfootman]

He's the glory boy and the work horse of the side. Won't even be close. SPOTY too

[Durhamfootman]

Aussies have some thinking to do regardless of retaining the urn.

Hazlewood and Cummins immense, but the rest of the bowling needs work. Lyon disappointing in this series, but still their number 1 spinner

Super Smiffy is on a different planet to everyone else and an excellent series for Shortchange, but little else to shout about.

top 2..... nightmare scenario. They dropped Bancroft after 2 matches, yet he faced as many deliveries in 4 innings as Warner did in 9, and nearly 60 more than Harris did in his 5 innings for only 5 less runs. I would argue that staying in for as long as you can is nearly as important as the runs you score, particularly when you have Capt Scarlett coming in at 4.

then again there is a Durham connection, so I probably would say that. We appreciate openers who can stay in for longer than 5 mins up here

[Durhamfootman]

Smiffy for overseas SPOTY?

[Durhamfootman]

50 for gentle Ben

[Arthur Crabtree]

Denly's gonna score a ton!

Hope he gets there.

[Durhamfootman]

Shhh!!!!!

stop trying to jinx him

Denly and Root have faced the same number of balls in this series, scored very similar numbers of runs, yet Root is cast iron secure and Denly is always on the edge of being dropped/shuffled. Shows what a poor series Root has had

lead is 282

[Arthur Crabtree]

Shhh!!!!!

stop trying to jinx him

It was a reverse jinx When he gets to three figures I'll have played my part.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Hundred partnership.

[Durhamfootman]

ended by the goat

spun through the pain barrier

Tailor made situation for JB1 to play positively. Can he make the most of it?

[Arthur Crabtree]

Argh. Sorry lad.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Wicket for Plantain Pete though. Which is always nice.