Australia made an ideal start to their pursuit of what would be a record-breaking target of 384 by easing to 135 without loss before rain intervened to stretch the Ashes series into its final day, but Marcus Trescothick insisted England remained positive with the game in a “great position”.
“It wasn’t going to be 150 all out, that’s for sure,” said Trescothick, England’s assistant coach. “We know statistically the Oval is the best batting pitch in the country. You can plan for these scenarios, and the pressure of the occasion, the bowlers we’ve got, a bit of spin and assistance from the pitch, suddenly you get them two or three down, but they’ve played well to get themselves in this position.
“I think the game’s in a great position and we’re still pretty positive about the job we’ve got to do. They’ve had a good start and seen off the new ball, but a couple of early ones in the morning and suddenly we’re right back in the mix again.”
Only once – when Don Bradman’s unbeaten 173 powered Australia to 404 for three at Headingley in 1948 – has a team chased more than 380 runs to win a Test in England, and the highest run chase at the Oval remains England’s 263 against Australia in 1902. But Australia were never daunted by the task that faced them.
“There’s so much time left in the game to chase down a target like that, and in very good batting conditions,” said Michael Di Venuto, Australia’s batting coach. “So it was just a matter of applying ourselves and playing the way we do. The openers went about it in their own different styles and so far have got us off to an excellent start.”
Though the retiring Stuart Broad’s ultimate fairytale ending looks a fair way off, he did claim the distinction of becoming only the second player to hit their last ball in Test cricket for six. “Most people it’s when their stumps are knocked over or they’ve nicked one to slip,” Trescothick said. “To think you could hit your last ball for six – we were all thinking about declaring at that point.
after newsletter promotion
“It was really nice, him and Jimmy walking out together. If there was one more fairytale left it would be ideal if it was Stuart’s last five-fer. We don’t see the fairytales we want to see at times, but it would be lovely to dream of it.”
