England VS. Australia Fifth Test Highlights, The Oval

The last occasion that England had opening stands of 50 or more in both innings of a Test at The Oval was against India in 2002 when Marcus Trescothick and Michael Vaughan started with 98 and 114*.
Jonny Bairstow’s 40th dismissal bowled brought him level with Alec Stewart. Only the retiring Stuart Broad (44) lies ahead by England players.
Joe Root’s 91 is only the third occasion when he has been dismissed in the 90s.
For the third time in his career, Root was dismissed bowled in both innings of the same Test. Strangely, the four occasions have been at the same ground twice (The Oval and North Sound).
Marnus Labuschagne’s first innings 9 in 118 minutes (and 82 balls) is the sixth slowest (4.58 runs per hour) by an Australian player batting for 100 or more minutes. Steve McKeefe’s 4 in 105 minutes (2.29 runs per hour) and 98 balls against Sri Lanka at Pallekele in 2016 tops the list whilst the fourth is held by Peter Nevill (9 in 130 minutes and 115 balls) during the same innings. In terms of balls faced, Labuschagne’s scoring rate of 10.97 per 100 balls is Australia’s tenth slowest (based on batting for 100 minutes or longer).
Labuschagne did pass 1000 runs in Ashes matches.
Usman Khawaja faced 1263 balls in the series, the twelfth highest by an Australian player against England. Mark Taylor tops the list with 1866 in 1989.
Khawaja also became the twenty-first Australian player to score 5000 Test runs.
Zak Crawley ended the series with the second-highest scoring rate (88.72) by an English player against Australia in a series. Sir Ian Botham’s 93.22 in 1981 is the only player higher (based on a minimum of a five-Test series).
For the second time in the series, Crawley fell to the same combination in both innings of a Test. The same happened to him at Edgbaston.
The partnership of 140 between David Warner and Khawaja is the second-highest opening stand by any country in the fourth innings of a Test at The Oval. The highest is 213 between Sunil Gavaskar and Chetan Chauhan for India against England in 1979.
Alex Carey scored 1000 Test runs, the seventh Australian wicket-keeper to do so.
Australia’s second innings 334 is the third-highest fourth innings total by a losing side at The Oval. The only higher such totals are Australia’s 348 in 2009 and India’s 345 in 2018.
James Anderson’s strike rate during the series of one wicket every 184.80 balls is his second-worst after his 246 balls per wicket against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka in 2018-19. This is therefore his worst strike rate in England after 2021 when he took a wicket on average every 155 balls against New Zealand.
Anderson did, though, become only the second player after Sir Ian Botham to take 50 wickets at The Oval. Stuart Broad finished in joint-third place with Derek Underwood on 45.
Anderson became the joint-seventh (with three others) oldest Test cricketer to celebrate a birthday during a Test appearance. Anderson is no stranger to birthday Tests, this being his tenth such appearance making him now top of the list after overtaking David Boon’s nine. The oldest player to celebrate a birthday during a Test was W.G. Grace, at the age of 48.
Steve Smith (671) overtook Don Bradman (553) as the highest scoring non-England player at The Oval.
As well as hitting his last ball in professional cricket for six and taking a wicket with his last ball also, Stuart Broad also became the first player to take over 150 Australian wickets in his career. Sir Ian Botham had previously taken 148.
Broad joined Sir Richard Hadlee, Glenn McGrath and Muttiah Muralitharan who are known to have taken a wicket with their last ball in Tests.
England had only one duck in the series and indeed during the home season which is their record. They have had five seasons when two ducks were scored: 1931 (3 Tests); 1926 (5 Tests); 1881 (4 Tests) and 1952 (4 Tests).
England’s run rate through the Ashes series (4.75 per over) is their highest against any team bettering their previous best of 4.62 against New Zealand in 2022. Their previous highest against Australia was 3.87 in 2005.