Australia had a productive outing on day one of the fifth and final Ashes 2023 Test at The Oval, bowling out England for 283 before openers Usman Khawaja and David Warner made a solid start with the bat, here on Thursday.
Khawaja (26 not out) and Marnus Labuschagne (2 not out) were unbeaten at the crease, with Australia ending on 61/1 at stumps on Day 1, trailing England by 222 runs.
Winning the toss and opting to bowl first, Pat Cummins and his men had to face a slog at the start, with England coming out all guns blazing. Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley took the aggressive route, attacking the Australian pacers.
Australia got their first breakthrough with Mitchell Marsh dismissing Ben Duckett for 41 in the 12th over. The next over saw Cummins dismiss Crawley for 22. Australia continued building on their momentum, with Joe Root being dismissed by Hazlewood in the 16th over.
Moeen Ali and Harry Brook continued to attack, building a counter-attacking partnership, as the sides headed to lunch at 131/3.
The 111-run stand finally came to an end when Todd Murphy dismissed Ali on 34. This brought a flurry of wickets for Australia as they made the most of the helpful overhead conditions.
England skipper Ben Stokes was the next one to perish with Mitchell Starc dismissing him for 3 with a peach of a delivery. Jonny Bairstow (4) then followed the England skipper back into the pavilion.
Brook’s sizzling knock of 85 finally came to an end too as Starc was again the man to do the damage, with England in trouble ahead of tea. Chris Woakes and Mark Wood played out the remainder of the session but England were on the backfoot.
Wood (28) and Woakes (36) though made crucial contributions before being dismissed by Murphy and Starc respectively. This was sandwiched by the wicket of Stuart Broad in the middle as England’s first innings would come to an end at 283.
The Australian openers –Warner and Khawaja walked out in challenging conditions but were determined in their effort to stay at the crease.
The pair laid out a solid platform while scoring at the decent click to eat away at England’s lead. But Warner’s promising knock finally came to an end on 24 when edged one delivery from Woakes, with Crawley taking a flying catch in the slips.
Khawaja and Labuschagne then saw out the remainder of the final session.
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