Crawley and Root’s fluent half-centuries drive England to extend lead

England’s Joe Root plays a shot for four off the bowling of Australia’s Pat Cummins on day three of the fifth Ashes Test match between England and Australia, at The Oval cricket ground in London on July 29, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

Joe Root made a fluent fifty as England moved quickly on to 265-4 at tea on the third day of the final Ashes test at The Oval on Saturday, 253 runs ahead of Australia.

The hosts, bidding to level the series, lost the wickets of Zak Crawley (73), Ben Stokes (42) and Harry Brook (seven) in the afternoon session but continued to bat positively.

Root looked in excellent touch, hitting eight fours and one six as he passed fifty for the 90th time in tests and was 61 not out at the interval with Jonny Bairstow on 34.

Crawley, who drove the first ball of the day from Mitchell Starc to the cover boundary, fell straight after lunch flashing at a wide ball from Pat Cummins and edging a catch to Steve Smith in the slips.

Root joined Stokes and they added 63 for the third wicket before Stokes tried to loft spinner Todd Murphy over long on and gave Cummins a simple catch.

Brook, who struck his second ball from Murphy for a straight six, was dismissed by a fine lifting ball from Josh Hazlewood which he nicked through to wicketkeeper Alex Carey.

Bairstow also showed attacking intent, hitting five fours in his unbeaten 32 off 31 balls.

Crawley and Ben Duckett shared a rapid opening stand of 79 in the morning which ended when the latter, on 42, edged Starc to Carey and the Australians successfully reviewed the umpire’s decision of not out.

The left-handed opener hit seven fours to give England a positive start and Australia, 2-1 up in the series and hoping to win the Ashes in England for the first time since 2001, were powerless to restrict the flow of runs.