Unscathed Australia on course for record chase as historic Ashes series win
Day four of the fifth Ashes Test of Ashes 2023 began with the England seamer Stuart Broad receiving a ‘guard of honour’ from Australia, as he stepped out to bat for the final time in his Test career. Broad swung his bat around and smacked Mitchell Starc for a maximum in the first over of the day to send the Oval crowd into a frenzy. England’s innings ended in the very next over as James Anderson got out lbw against Todd Murphy.
Mitchell Starc (4/100) and Todd Murphy (4/110) were the pick of the bowlers for Australia. As a result, England got all out for 395 in their second innings, thereby setting a massive target of 384 for Australia to win the series. Australian openers David Warner and Usman Khawaja walked out in the middle to get their team off to a great start in the massive chase.
The eyes of the fans were once again fixated on the battle between Stuart Broad and David Warner as fans wished for Broad to get Warner’s wicket one final time in his career. However, the Australian opener was up for the challenge as he showed caution early on in his innings and played every ball on its merit.
David Warner and Usman Khawaja’s excellent opening stand keeps Australia in box seat
The duo saw off the new ball and were biding their time in the middle waiting for the loose deliveries to pounce on. Warner and Khawaja batted through the first session and got their team off to a positive start adding 75 runs till Lunch. They further continued their partnership in the second session and extended it beyond 100 as both completed their half-centuries.
Khawaja was getting his eye in and setting himself up for a big score as he also became the highest run scorer of the series (493* runs) during his knock. On the other hand, Warner was taking on the bowlers after completing his fifty and began finding gaps regularly in the field. However, in the second session, the heavens opened up and interrupted their brilliant stand on 135 with Warner on 58 and Khawaja on 69, respectively. The match couldn’t resume after that and Australia went to stumps unscathed. Meanwhile, Twitter was abuzz with reactions to another exciting day’s play.
