On this day in 2019: England defeat Australia at The Oval to level the Ashes

The Ashes is considered as one of the most high-profile tournaments played in the world between England and Australia. Both the heavyweights of the cricketing world try their best to get the trophy in their favour owing to the respect attached to it due to the events in history. Talking about one of those matches in Ashes 2019, England played a terrific game to win the last game of the series to level Ashes 2-2.

While Australia were leading the series in the 2019 Ashes, the last Test which took place at The Oval saw the series standing levelled 2-2. Talking of the match, England batted first and could post 294 runs on the board which came on the back of Joe Root’s 57 and Jos Buttler’s 70. Mitchell Marsh was upright in his actions and took a classy fifer to shake England’s middle order.

Archer dismantles Australian batting unit

While the visitors came up to bat, they didn’t even reach 294 runs and ended their show on mere 225 runs. Australia’s ace batsman Steve Smith added 80 runs and Marnus Labuschagne added 48 runs and that was all the major contribution from the batting set of Kangaroos. Sam Curran picked three wickets but the actual magic unfolded from the hands of premier English pacer Jofra Archer.

Archer picked six wickets and was eventually declared as the player of the match. When England batted for the second time, they posted 329 runs and this time around, the tone was set by their opener Joe Denly who played a valiant knock of 94 runs. Ben Stokes assisted him with his 67 runs to push England up. When Australia came to show for the final time, the batting unit collapsed utterly.

While on one hand Matthew Wade smashed a century, other batters kept hanging in just 20s. Australia got wrapped up on 263 runs and handed over victory by 135 runs to Joe Root and his men. During the final innings of England’s bowling, veteran pacer Stuart Broad picked four wickets while Jack Leach also bagged four under his belt. Joe Root also had two to his name. Though Wade’s century was very much in Australia’s favour, England removed Smith cheaply to get the ball in their favour.

It was the first time since 1972 that the Ashes series resulted in a draw.