Key events
105th over: Australia 406-7 (Carey 14, Cummins 0) Another sniff of a run out as Cummins turns a ball to midwicket and both batters set off, stutter, and go back as the throw comes in. Shardul bumps Cummins, perhaps getting in before Cummins can do the same, hitting him on the arm. Then strays down leg, allowing Cummins to add four to the team’s score off his thigh pad. Technically though it’s still a maiden over.
104th over: Australia 402-7 (Carey 14, Cummins 0) The captain joins his wicketkeeper in the middle. Carey on strike defends to end the over.
WICKET! Starc run out Axar Patel 5, Australia 402-7
There’s one! Starc’s call, Starc’s error. He drives straight, not forcefully back past the bowler. Sees mid on moving to his left, knows he’ll have to field left-handed. So Starc takes on the run. The only problem is that it’s the sub fielder, Axar Patel, and he’s left-handed. So Axar picks up cleanly and throws down the stumps on the bounce, across his body. Good fielding. Carey honoured the call because he had his back to the ball and was running to the safer end. Fair enough. Starc goes, a metre short.
103rd over: Australia 400-6 (Carey 13, Starc 4) There’s the 400 for Australia, with a couple of singles from Thakur’s bowling. More wickets needed urgently for India, it looks like there’s still enough in this surface to give Australia’s bowlers a chance.
102nd over: Australia 398-6 (Carey 12, Starc 3) The ball is still doing a bit! Umesh gets one to swerve through the air, beating the keeper down the leg side to the fence. Whoops. Starc drives a couple of runs through cover.
101st over: Australia 391-6 (Carey 11, Starc 1) Similar pattern, Carey steers a single second ball of the over and leaves the business end to Starc. The tall bowler opens his account with a run to midwicket nudged off his pad. Carey adds another. They draw Australia closer to 400.
100th over: Australia 388-6 (Carey 9, Starc 0) Happy to take a single is Carey, turned to midwicket. Starc leaves one, wafts at another. Umesh got Starc out in his reversing spell of 3 for 12 in the first innings at Indore a couple of months ago, a performance that kept India in the game for a while after having been bowled out for 109. Starc survives this time.
99th over: Australia 387-6 (Carey 8, Starc 0) With that wicket under his belt, Shardul Thakur is suddenly into his stride. Bowls a good tight line at the body of the left-handed Starc, a bit of movement through the air even when the length isn’t full. We’ve seen some fine spells from him over the past couple of years. Bowls a straightening line across Starc to follow that nearly draws a nick behind.
India have clawed back into the contest in this session, they can’t afford to let the lower order get Australia up around 450 though.
WICKET! Smith b Thakur 121, Australia 387 for 5
That’s the one! The Oval erupts as Smith’s stumps light up. Shardul Thakur on for a trundle, and that must be close to the most harmless ball that has ever got Smith out. A warm-up ball, well outside the off stump, and for some reason Smith leaves his bat hanging out there, well away from his body. It takes the inside edge, and he doesn’t get the lucky runs that Carey enjoyed in the previous over. He just gets dismissed.
98th over: Australia 387-5 (Smith 121, Carey 8) Streaky from Carey, chops a shot off the inside edge past his stumps for four. Umesh’s fruitless bowling innings continues.
97th over: Australia 382-5 (Smith 120, Carey 4) Off the mark with a boundary is Carey, opening the face and steering behind point. Shami is bowling around the wicket to him, two slips and a gully in place. Smashes him on the pad last ball of the over, going down the leg side I fancy. Control+C, Control+V, another big appeal from a backward-running Shami, and this time Rohit shapes to request the review… and doesn’t. Pulls his arms away from the T sign and walks straight to their drinks break huddle.
96th over: Australia 378-5 (Smith 120, Carey 0) Umesh Yadav on to bowl one over before drinks. Better than his start yesterday, it only yields a dashed single for Smith and a leg bye from Carey.
95th over: Australia 376-5 (Smith 119, Carey 0) Shami to the left-handed Carey, working in the channel outside off stump immediately. Smashed on the pad last ball of the over, but high, maybe some bat in there? Hard to tell, it bounced up towards point a long way.
WICKET! Green c Gill b Shami 6, Australia 376 for 5
There’s one for India! Green looked good for a minute but he aims a hard-handed drive at a ball that’s not full enough for it. Looking to force that more than drive it, not fully forward. Shami gets enough from the pitch to take the edge and it flies to first slip, nearly taking Gill with it to the boundary. He manages to cling on while he falls.
94th over: Australia 368-4 (Smith 119, Green 6) Siraj will be frustrated. Draws an edge from Smith, but it’s thick and low, flying square through the finer part of the gully area for four. Siraj follows up by revisiting his early sins, full on the pads and Smith clips him for another boundary.
93rd over: Australia 368-4 (Smith 111, Green 6) So Travis Head’s career batting average is up to 47.62. The partnership was 285, which is 29th on Australia’s all-time partnership list.
92nd over: Australia 367-4 (Smith 110, Green 6) Cameron Green to the middle for his first hit in England, and he smokes his first ball for four! Width, enough to smash a square drive behind point. Then takes two more through square. Comfortable start. Another bouncer goes way over the batter’s head, again waved through by the umpire.
WICKET! Head c Bharat b Siraj 163, Australia 361-4
There it is! Relief for India. Head isn’t really a bunker-down-and-go-again kind of player, so he keeps throwing the bat at everything. This time it’s a ball down the leg side as he’s stepping across to off. Middling length, about hip high. Gets a glove on it to the keeper.
Cricket – ICC World Test Championship Final – Australia v India – The Oval, London, Britain – June 8, 2023 India’s Mohammed Siraj celebrates after taking the wicket of Australia’s Travis Head Action Images via Reuters/Paul Childs Photograph: Paul Childs/Action Images/Reuters
91st over: Australia 361-3 (Smith 110, Head 163) Shami tries the short ball from the far end, and Head whacks that for four. Then another pull to fine leg for a single. Pitches up at the end of the over and Smith drives that through cover for four! Hasn’t played much on the off side in this innings but he gets the width there to open his hands.
90th over: Australia 351-3 (Smith 106, Head 158) Suddenly some life from Siraj! Gets his length right with the short ball, savagely rising at head who fends it away desperately and gets lucky as it lands safely behind point. Two balls later, he miscues a pull shot into the leg side, landing in a gap between a couple of fielders. The ball in between those two, though, he pulls for four. Classic Travis Head sequence there.
89th over: Australia 345-3 (Smith 105, Head 153) The first boundary of the day for Head, leaning back and placing his cut shot behind point from Shami. He gives a modest wave and nothing more for the applause greeting his 150 – quite right, Travis, it is a nonsense milestone. Get a double ton and salute that. He tries a similar shot next ball and gets one more run. Smith glances another.
88th over: Australia 338-3 (Smith 104, Head 148) Siraj works away, and after that early flurry Smith goes back into his defensive mode from yesterday. The only run is a wide from a high bouncer. India’s quicks really have not got the length on this pitch, most of the short balls yesterday went sailing over. And the umpires ignored most of those yesterday, but this one is called today.
87th over: Australia 338-3 (Smith 104, Head 148) Mohammed Shami on from the Vauxhall End, and hitting a decent length. Both players bat sensibly, with a couple of singles, until Head swishes at the last ball of the over and misses.
CENTURY! Steve Smith 103 from 229 balls
86th over: Australia 336-3 (Smith 103, Head 147) Well that doesn’t take long! Travis Head rides the bounce of the first ball of the day, dropping it to the leg side for a run. Then Siraj bowls two offerings on the pads, and Smith flicks them both away through the leg side for four! He goes from 95 to 103 in the blink of an eye, and has no sooner started his day than he’s lifting his arms to the crowd in salute, kissing the badge and all that stuff, celebrating Test century #31 in his personal collection. That’s one every 3.12 matches across his career.
The players are in the middle, we are ready to go.
Lovely day here at The Oval, the forecast was spot on so far. Not a cloud visible about quarter of an hour before play. Pleasant sunshine but not hot.
If you want to come down there might be seats available in the Pavilion. They only got around to releasing those publicly a few days ago, given the Surrey members hadn’t shown much interest. So it was largely empty in that one stand yesterday.
This being the ICC + cricket in England, those tickets are probably punishingly expensive if they are available. Let me know if you’ve been scoping it out, enquiring minds want to know.
Want to know about Travis Head reaching new heights before a lot of people have realised that he’s quite that good? I’ve got you covered.
Want a wider lens on the whole shebang, the meaning, the spectacle, the annoyed public servants? Andy Bull is your answer.
Want the details of yesterday? Have Simon Burnton’s match report.
Preamble
Geoff Lemon
Gooood morning/morrow/gloaming/evensong, or whatever temporal variant applies to you. It is time for the World Test Championship final to enter its second phase, on a day that the Australians will be looking forward to rather more than what is probably a sore and irritable Indian team.
India were in the game yesterday after some fierce bowling at the start, but then Travis Head did the Travis Head trick, which is to make a million runs at a million miles an hour. He’s resuming on 156 not out, Steve Smith on 95 not out, and they could race up the list of Australian partnerships with 251 already between them.
Commentary statement of the obvious: India need all of the wickets in none of the time, and it’s supposed to be a sunny day in London with temperatures in the low 20s. That’s right: officially a Batting Day. Prepare yourself.
