England takes their lead past 200 in the fifth and final test of ASHES series, at Oval, London. England is 176-2 for two in their second innings as Denly and Ben stokes are engaged in a healthy partnership.
Australia won the toss and put England into bat. England scored 294 runs in their first innings courtesy of Butler who scored 70 and Root who scored a decent and promising half century. Mitchell Marsh was the pick of the bowlers for Australia, he picked up five wickets.
Australia in reply, scored 225 in their first innings. Thanks to a brilliant innings of 80 by the Australian captain Steven Smith, Australia revived and recovered, though they still were short of the English total by 69 runs.

Steven Smith lead Australia from the front and retained Ashes trophy for his side
English middle order in looking in good shape at the moment and the home side is dominating with a 243 runs lead with eight wickets in hand. There is still plenty of time left in this test match, with two more days of ( 90 overs each) still to come after today’s play. So the result is very much on, and most likely it’s going to be an English win to level the series, unless and until a major collapse rephrase the script.
Australia is leading the five match series by 2-1 and has retained the Ashes.
The Ashes is a five match test cricket series which is played between Australia and England after a span of two years, alternatively in Australia and England.