‘Great captain-great character-great comeback’ – Fans react as England win seal thrilling 49-run win at Oval to draw Ashes 2023

English star pacer Stuart Broad claimed the final two Australia wickets and secured a thrilling win by 49 runs for his team in the fifth and final Ashes Test on Monday at The Oval in London, levelling the series at 2-2 after five intense matches.

Earlier, England had posted a target of 395 runs on the board after their second innings. Notably, English openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett gave them a good start with the bat, scoring 73 and 42 runs respectively. Following that, captain Ben Stokes (42) and Joe Root (91) also had a solid partnership. Later, Bairstow’s gusty 78 runs helped them post a huge target against the visitors. In addition, Starc and Murphy scalped four wickets each.

Later, while chasing, the visitors also looked in great form as their openers David Warner and Usman Khawaja hammered half-centuries to give them a good start. Following them, Steve Smith also struck out 54 and had a great stand with Travis Head (43). But England held their nerves as they bowled out Pat Cummins-led Australia for 334 runs. Pacer Chris Woakes scalped four wickets, while off-spinner Moeen Ali and veteran pacer Stuart Broad picked three and two wickets respectively. The match went right down to the wire as the match was sealed in the final session with fewer than 20 overs to spare.

It really suits our mentality: Ben Stokes

Speaking on the same subject, skipper Ben Stokes shared his happiness and affirmed that it was a great win for them, especially against the World Test champions. The English skipper also believes that no other team would have come back in the series the way they did.

“Two-two is a fair reflection of two teams that have been going toe to toe. Australia, world Test champions, absolute quality team. Being two-nil down after two games, I don’t think many teams would have been able to respond in the manner like we did. Yeah, pretty contented about everything we’ve achieved in the last seven weeks. It was do-or-die again, it has been since the first two games. It really suits our mentality,” Stokes said after the match.

Check out how the fans have reacted to the same: