Welcome to our coverage of the final day of an all-time great Test series.
Australia will begin day five at the oval 249 runs away from victory, with England requiring 10 wickets to steal a series draw.
A win or a draw will give Australia their first series win in England in 22 years.
SCROLL DOWN FOR ALL THE KEY MOMENTS FROM DAY FIVE
WILL BAZBALL DIE AT THE SAME VENUE AS ENGLISH CRICKET DID IN 1882?
It’s not like Manchester, but there will be some nervous English cricket fans turning to their weather app to check the forecast across their nation’s capital.
There is a heavy cloud cover to start at The Oval according to SEN’s Bharat Sundaresan, signalling the possibility that the weather will once again be a factor in who takes home the chocolates in the finale of the Ashes.
You could almost argue that the rain came at a good time for the hosts yesterday, with Usman Khawaja and David Warner cruising to an unbeaten 135-run partnership on day four.
An Australian victory may not only define this generation of Australian cricket, but ask some serious questions of whether England’s method does stack up against the best.
The home side will be hoping that they can side Stuart Broad off with a famous victory, as the paceman prepares for his final day of Test cricket.
Broad went out to bat for the final time yesterday, with his last ball faced in Test cricket going for six off Mitchell Starc.
“I’ve had a love affair with the Ashes my whole life and the thought of being able to bowl my last ball and face my last ball against Australia fills me with joy,” he said.
The 37-year-old seamer is the fifth most successful bowler in Test history, with 602 wickets, so far.
If the rain does hold off, we should be set for an unbelievable day of cricket with any result in play.
‘SPARE US’: DID BROAD HIJACK BAZBALL’S DEFINING MOMENT?
The fate of Bazball – as much as the Ashes – goes on the line on the final day of the series at the Oval tonight.
With Australia needing a further 249 runs, and with all ten wickets intact, have the chance to complete an extraordinary runchase and seal an emphatic 3-1 series victory.
As the Guardian’s Barney Ronay writes: “it was always coming down to this”.
“One day left to save the English Ashes summer; and to save a few other things too,” he noted.
But the decision by Stuart Broad to hijack the final two days of the Test, with his mid-match announcement that it would be his last, was also noted as a curious one.
“Was this the right stuff, really, for the sharp end of the series, the guard of honour energy, the weirdly sensual and sombre Sky TV homages?” Ronay mused.
“Why not just retire the day after the series ends?
“It is hard to imagine a more distracting way of doing this, a day of potentially era-defining Test cricket recast as the launch of a new media brand.
“There will be cries that one of England’s great Test bowlers needs a chance to wave goodbye.
“But why? This is not the Love Island finale. It’s a brilliantly engaging Test series with a knife-edge finish to come.
“Spare us the Viking funeral, just for now.”
Originally published as Ashes cricket 2023: All the latest from day five at The Oval