England are praying of one last “fairytale” spell from Stuart Broad as the final Ashes Test of this extraordinary summer goes down to the wire.
Rain swept across south London and wiped out more than half of Sunday’s play, leaving Australia needing 249 further runs, with all 10 wickets in hand, to win an Ashes series in England for the first time since 2001. Better weather is forecast for Monday.
Usman Khawaja, the series’s leading run-scorer, and David Warner, who has been tormented by Broad in recent years, put on a superb unbeaten opening partnership of 135 to raise Australia’s hopes of victory after England posted 395 in their second innings.
Australia’s players formed a guard of honour for Broad at the start of the day as he will retire from all cricket on Monday, when the series ends. He made his name through epic Ashes spells and England’s assistant coach Marcus Trescothick is “dreaming” of one last magic burst.
“We were talking this morning,” said Trescothick. “If there was one more fairytale left it would be ideal if it was Stuart’s last five-fer, one to win or two to win and he runs in and gets his last five-fer. Something like that would be brilliant wouldn’t it?
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