Ashes 2023 | Bowling Blitz - England Stuns Australia on Final Day to Draw Ashes
England won the final Test of Ashes 2023 to draw the series 2-2 (Source: AP Photos)
The last day of the fifth and final test of the ashes ends in a dramatic fashion with England bowlers demolishing the hopes of the Aussies to win the series in England. Australia were in a good position at the end of day 4 at 135-0 and had to play out one day with 10 wickets in hand. Even after Woakes got both the openers out and Labuschagne got dismissed cheaply, the partnership of Travis Head and Steve Smith made sure that Australia ended the 1st session at 238-3.
With a rained-out second session Australia needed 146 runs from the last session to win but Moeen Ali chipped in with 3 crucial wickets to put the Aussies under pressure at 294-8. With 2 wickets left Stuart Broad gets the last two wickets of his career to make sure England win by 49 runs. The last season saw Australia losing 7 wickets for 96 runs destroying their hopes of beating England in a series at their home.
Heartbreak Down Under: Australia's Day 5 Collapse Hands Victory to Rivals
Batter type i.e RHB & LHB Wickets Pitch Map
Australia’s last session collapse was the turning point in the match which finally took the game away from them. Unfortunately, most of the Aussie batsmen were victims of some good display of bowling by England. Khawaja and Warner were looking at the crease and had brought up their half-centuries. It was some amazing deliveries from Woakes that ended their innings where Warner was the victim of the late outswinger and Khawaja was a victim of the late-in nipper.
Even Marnus Labuschagne was caught in his crease playing for the one coming in which nipped away on a back of a length delivery outside off stump which was the same story with Steve Smith as well. On the other hand, if we see the dismissals of Travis Head and Mitch Marsh they both were done by their own mistakes of playing the spinner with hard hands where Head was caught at slip playing an expansive drive through covers and Marsh just inside-edged a normal off-spinner of his pads and balloons into the hands of the keeper which was an exceptional catch by Bairstow.
Regardless of being a tail-ender, we have seen Starc show better batting ability than he showed on day 5 where he was fishing outside off stump and Aussie skipper Cummins played a rash shot that deflected off his pads and went straight into the hands of Stokes at leg slip who took a comfortable catch. The last two dismissals by Stuart Broad were just an example of great fast bowling where he set up Todd Murphy really well and finally squared him up which ended in him edging it straight into the gloves of the keeper. The last delivery to dismiss Carey was not as unplayable as the last one but it was enough to nick it straight to the keeper and ending the proper fairy tale send off for Stuart Broad in his last test.
Conclusion
Overall this has been another thrilling test match where both the teams came into the game in different phases. For a while it looked like Australia would win the series with Khawaja and Warner giving a much needed start and Smith and Head brilliant partnership to keep Australia in the game. Even though we saw some excellent bowling display by England there were some small mistakes made by the Aussie batsmen in their approach to the game that cost them the series.
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