Key eventsShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureThat’s all from me for today, and indeed for the 2023 Ashes. Thanks so much for your company and emails today and throughout the series. I haven’t felt so alive at work in years. See you for the World Cup!Read Simon Burnton’s Ashes diaryAli Martin on Stuart BroadStumps: Australia 135-0 chasing 384It’s over, you don’t need to tell me. The umpires have accepted the futility of the situation, so it’s time for everyone to do one. They’ll be back tomorrow for the last day of this magical series. The forecast is better, and all four results are still on the table. Of course they are: this series has had enough momentum shifts to give WinViz a nervous breakdown.Updated at 16.53 BST“Surely the ultimate ‘lost Bazballer’ is one of the closest to making it to their era: Jos Buttler?” says Phil Harrison. “The selectors were, of course, right to move on from him when they did. But I’m still infuriated to think how snarled up in angst he looked for most of his Test career and to imagine the utter carnage he might have unleashed with the complete ‘eff it’ freedom Stokes and McCullum would have afforded him.”Though I agree with you, I suspect Buttler’s biggest problem at Test level has been his own subconscious, not the England selectors and coaches. You can infer from his interview that he feels like he’s trespassing when he wears whites, and that’s a very difficult mindset to change. If anyone can…We might yet find out. I have a hunch he’ll play some Test cricket next year.“Hello Rob!” writes Phil West. “OK, it wasn’t retiring from making zillions of dosh like the candidates that a few others have mentioned - but for retiring at the top I cannot think of anyone in any sport better than Herb Elliott. WR holder and Olympic 1500m champion, never beaten over a mile, then retires at 22 and goes on to make his mark in business.”I had literally never heard of him (obviously I’m not a golfer), but that sounds like a great story.“To change sport again,” writes Penelope, “Ash Barty retired from tennis right at the top, rated number one, when she was only 25.”Updated at 16.53 BST“I know it doesn’t really count as he played 117 Tests,” says Adam Roberts, “but I have felt all summer that DI Gower would love being in this team with no-one moaning about his lack of application.”Or falling into a leg trap on the stroke of lunch. Different times, eh.“Boa tarde Rob,” says Geoff Wignall. “May I throw another name into the mix re: Tim Sanders 23:13 musings about those who would have thrived under Bazball: Graeme Hick?”“Another player for the ‘who would have thrived under Bazball’ team,” writes John Jones. “Matthew Maynard.”Yep, agree with both of those. In fact, I’ve made this very helpful list of England players who would probably have excelled under the captaincy of Ben Stokes.Graeme Hick shows his Bazball credentials against India in 1996. Photograph: Adrian Murrell/ALLSPORTUpdated at 16.54 BST“The weather’s nice, isn’t it? A little brisk.”With that, I’m away to grab a coffee. There’s a 0.06 per cent chance of us seeing any more play today, but we’ll keep the OBO going until the umpires get all official on us.Updated at 16.27 BSTAnother early retirement“Frank Rijkaard was only 32 when he quit, after Ajax won the Champions League in 1995,” writes Rob Knap. “His list of honours is just ludicrous!”He’s somebody who would fit into modern football without a scintilla of difficult. Pep Guardiola would happily pay about £500m for him.“Greetin’ into my beer listening to Mike Atherton talking with McGrath about their ever-linked careers,” writes Simon McMahon. “So thoughtful and gracious it almost beggars belief. McGrath and Warne up there in the retirement chat..?”I’d say they were more fairytale retirements (which are also very rare in all sport, especially for the true greats) than premature: Warne was 37 and McGrath 36, and Warne might have gone in 2005 had Australia not lost the series.Updated at 16.20 BSTAnother plug for Ali Martin’s fine tribute to Stuart Broad, England’s chief brawler of the past 15 years.Tomorrow’s forecast is better, though there could still be some light showers. If you have a spare farm, put it on the draw.“So Broad - and almost certainly Anderson - will bow out with four Ashes series wins,” says Max Williams. “Brilliant record although weird to think that last of them came in 2015. Both have played nine series, an unbelievable number - Michael Vaughan only played two.“Even weirder? The most successful English Ashes cricketer in the 21st century (and God knows how long) is Ian Bell. Five series wins out of seven - although the two losses were 5-0. He’d have done OK in this team as well.”That’s right. Bell is one of only two Englishmen since the war to win five Ashes series, Sir Ian Botham being the other. What an unlikely Aussie-bashing duo they make: a thrilling specimen of primal masculinity who gave an entire nation the chills for over a decade, and that fella who walked from Land’s End to John O’Groats. Honk.“The rain delay is allowing me to catch up with the GAA final live from Dublin on BBC2 (as alerted earlier on OBO),” writes Brian Withington. “Marvellously barmy sport. My tiny footballing youngest son was introduced to it as a nipper by the local Celtic mafia in West Midlands, and improbably took to it like a duck to water.“We went to the regional u13 (ish) final and I’d never seen anything like it. Rival factions marching with banners, flags and massed bands before the game and utter mayhem once it started, with impromptu field hospitals on each side like something out of M*A*S*H. Ended in a relatively low-scoring draw.“Replay was won by said nipper in an extraordinary MotM performance - proudest day of my life, despite not really having a clue what was going on. Said son just texted to say he’s forgotten the rules. ‘What rules?!’, I replied.“2013 was a fascinating series,” writes Phil Harrison. “Much closer than the scoreline suggested (Aus were robbed by weather at, naturally, Old Trafford) and the Trent Bridge and Durham games could have gone either way.“I’m having 2019 a lot lower (totally in the shadow of the World Cup and the draw flattered England every bit as much as a draw in this series would flatter Australia).“I’d have 2009 a lot higher too (the Oval game in that series was one of those baton-passing games - we said goodbye to Freddie and hello, in earnest, to Stuart Broad). Jimmy and Monty, too!”There’s a good argument for those four series – 2009, 2013, 2015, 2019 – to be in any order. For example 2015 included Broad’s eight-for, one of the great Ashes tone-setters from Joe Root and some mighty batting from Steve Smith, but there no close finishes. We’ve been very lucky with the Ashes series in England since 2001. Not so much down under, though that’s largely England’s fault.“Test cricket is a truculent beast isn’t it?” says Phil Harrison. “Imagine turning up at the Oval today? If you were an England fan, you’d think you’d hit the jackpot. A Broad five-for? A mixture of joy and tears while watching a lap of honour under early evening sunshine as Bazball is vindicated and one of the true England greats is saluted? You’ve watched Jimmy be lbw and then you’ve watched Warner and Khawaja dealing comfortably with Joe Root’s part time off-spin. Thank goodness Broad hit that six at least...”“G’day, Rob,” writes Sarah Bacon. “Although I’ve been penning missives to the Grauniad since I first touched down in Ingerland in ‘04, one memorable occasion from The Past is when you ‘retired’ in 2007, and I’d bashfully accepted an invitation to your farewell drinks at the Coach & Horses. Still warms the cockles that you haven’t left yet. Thanks for the memories. Cheers!”That wasn’t an OBO retirement; that was a full-on bye-bye-Guardian flounce. I lasted about eight months before noticing a certain lack of greenness on the other side.The weather at the Oval is despicable, the end. Trust me, there won’t be any more play today, but we’ll keep the OBO going until it is confirmed.Updated at 16.13 BSTA few nominations for people in all sports who have retired at the top“Seymour Nurse retired (prematurely) at 35, averaging 111.60 in his last series and with a final test innings of 258,” writes Marcus Abdullahi. “I think that is a reasonable way to bow out.”“Different sport, but this applies to the Australian rugby great Mark Ella, who many considered the most naturally talented player Australia had produced,” writes Martin Gillam. “He hung them up at age 25, reportedly because he could not stand playing under coach Alan Jones (whose day job was and is aggressive right-wing radio commentator). Ella later expressed some regrets, because shortly after he retired the World Cup was created, which he said he would have stuck around for, coach notwithstanding.“Bjorn Borg was 25 when he retired in 1981,” writes Nick Walmsley. “Marco van Basten’s retirement was certainly memorable - a packed San Siro, handshakes with Pierluigi Collina, Fabio Capello bawling - but we all wish it hadn’t been like that.”I didn’t know until recently that the injury that eventually ended his career also facilitated his amazing goal against the USSR. If anyone’s interested, I think we talk about it on tomorrow’s Nessun Dorma podcast.Max Williams sent this email yesterday but a) I missed it as we my inbox was bursting and b) it’s perfect for a rainy day
Ok let’s do the ranking - home Ashes series since 2005 (away Ashes is just 2010/11 and pick your poison). Thoughts?
1) 2005 - Realistically will never be bettered. This one might have come close but ending 18 years of hurt against one of the greatest teams of all time is unmatched narrative.
2) 2023 - So nearly an all-timer before the rain did its thing. Still a brilliant series that looks likely to produce the most crushing of moral victories.
3) 2019 - Served up the greatest match/innings I’ve ever seen and some iconic moments. Plus - through gritted teeth - a historic series from Steve Smith.
4) 2009 - Apart from 2005, the only series since 1985 where the Ashes were at stake in the last match. But all the matches were fairly one sided other than Cardiff.
5) 2015 - A 3-2 scoreline flattered the Aussies. Felt like the start of something. Haven’t won one since.
6) 2013 - The forgotten series. Basically made redundant by the immediate sequel down under. Poor Ian Bell.
I feel the same about 1 and 2. I find it hard to distinguish between the others because they all have good and bad bits. For eg 2013 had four tight finishes, and a genuinely astonishing match at Trent Bridge, but it was 3-0 and then 0-5. I’d say 2009 was the poorest in terms of quality, yet at the time it was all-consuming. My instinct was to put 2019 lower, but then I remembered Stokes’s innings and Jofra Archer’s spell to Steve Smith, the Atherton v Donald of this generation.This is a nice, wistful email from Rob Knap
I’m in a very reflective frame of mind this afternoon. Warner and Khawaja are doing well, but I feel strangely unmoved by the prospect of an England defeat. I was very moved yesterday though, when Broad said that this would be his last match. Test cricket seems to mark time for many of us believers. Growing up, I remembered years and events beyond cricket according to who was touring, or notable performances: 1985 – Gower. 1990 – 333. 1995 – Cork. And so on. 2008 came to mind yesterday – Broad against SA, when he looked like a proper allrounder.
Thinking back to those markers, I tend to recall what’s happened since – and I was remembering all sorts of things that have happened since Broad’s first Test summer last night. In short: 15 years is a long, long time. (And this is without getting into the way Test matches can play out in the background during some of the most momentous moments in life, good and bad. Broad’s been a major part of that for these last 15 years.)
Longevity itself doesn’t tell his whole story, but I think it’s an important part of what makes it so remarkable. 15 years! Christ knows what it’ll feel like when Jimmy says he’s off.
On top of all that, something I’ve not shaken off since I was about nine or 10 years old, the Oval Test* just seems to trigger a sense of brooding: end of careers, end of test summer, end of summer holidays…
So, after an amazing series, now it’s no more Broad, no more Tests this summer (it’s still July for God’s sake). For a moment I was starting to get a bit desperate, but it’s OK: the Premier League’s firing up again in under two weeks!
* I know – it wasn’t always the last one in a summer.
Funnily enough I was writing something about football, memory and neurodivergence this week, and was overwhelmed by the ephemeral snapshots that appeared whenever I recalled a match or a moment. For plenty of people who didn’t keep a diary growing up, the neural connections created by sport (and music) are the closest thing we have to a journal.If you haven’t seen it, this is pretty lovelyWeather update See the last weather update. I suspect we’re done for the day.Another Stuart Broad stat. I like this one, and I reckon he would too. It’s list of players with the most man of the match awards in Ashes-winning victories*.3 Stuart Broad2 Sir Ian Botham, Steve Smith1 Graham Gooch, Gladstone Small, Geoff Lawson, Allan Border, Steve Waugh, Ian Healy, Stuart MacGill, Shane Warne, Damien Martyn, Michael Hussey, Sir Alastair Cook, Scott Boland.* This doesn’t include, for example, Kevin Pietersen in 2005, because although England won the Ashes that day, they didn’t win the match. Similarly, it doesn’t include draws that secured a series victory – although in one such case, at Adelaide 1990-91, the man of the match was actually the beaten captain Graham Gooch.“Hi Rob,” says Simon McMahon. “(Sir) Alistair Cook talking very eloquently on radio about his England retirement and the similarities/differences with Stuart Broad. Effectively admitting he lost some focus after reaching 10,000 Test runs. As you do. I’m not quite there myself yet, think I’m more in the Jimmy Anderson mould. Reckon I’ve got at least another year sending emails to the OBO while eating peanuts and drinking beer in my kitchen.”Ha. I think I first announced my OBO retirement in 2005, so from now on I’m keeping quiet until the Grim Reaper withdraws my central contract.“Did I miss something or wasn’t the ball changed when Khawaja was hit on the helmet?” wonders Neil Parkes. “Pretty sure the silver ball case came out anyway.”Yeah, apparently it was knocked out of shape when it hit Khawana on the head.Thankfully, Usman Khawaja’s helmet did it’s job. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The GuardianUpdated at 17.29 BST“Afternoon Rob,” writes Nick Parish. “To distract from the terrible spectacle on the pitch (and I don’t mean the rain), I was wondering whether Stuart Broad will be the cricketer retiring from test cricket closest to the peak of his form. After all he’s going to be either the first or second highest wicket taker in this Ashes, and feels to me like our most valuable bowler at present. I’m struggling to think of another cricketer who has retired while so close to the top. Who is the cricketing equivalent of Eric Cantona?”That’s a great question. I was chatting about this last night, and I reckon Broad is a banker for the Joy of Six: Retirements. Not just the timing but the manner and even the interview, which was perfectly pitched, his face a picture of pride and serenity.A lot of great cricketers have had Hollywood farewells – Murali, Nasser, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath – but Cantona was different: a JFK moment and an early retirement. Broad is close, but ultimately he’s still 37. From memory Cantona was a few days short of his 30th birthday. Or was it a few days after? Either way, I’m struggling to think of an equivalent. Any suggestions?Weather update There is no update.“I’m beginning to sulk a bit here,” weeps Steve Pye. “Sadly the forecast looks a bit more threatening than our bowling attack at the moment. It seems a good time to plug a blog I wrote about Australia’s great team in 2001. Not sure how we were supposed to compete against that XI, especially as we collected key injuries along the way.”Well, we weren’t. Easy to forget, though, that before the injuries there was an expectation of a really close series. One of those injuries, the one that ruled Michael Vaughan out of the series, did England a favour. I feel quite strongly that, had Vaughan played on spicy pitches in 2001, England wouldn’t have won the Ashes in 2005. Instead, his first Test series against the Aussies was on flat pitches in 2002-03, when he scored a million runs and cemented his belief – shared by nobody in England at the time – that the only way to beat Australia was to attack them.A different kind of Bazball XI“I’ve tried to select an XI of players whose on-off Test careers might have flourished under the present leadership,” writes Tim Sanders. “Here are eleven batters who were seen as a bit too attacking and inconsistent; bowlers who took wickets but whose lines and lengths varied more than their peers.“There will be many better alternatives, but it would take a strong call indeed to dissuade me from Jonny’s dad behind the stumps, or Closey’s leadership. He really should’ve had more than 22 caps in a 37-year span of Test cricket.
Colin MilburnPercy HolmesRavi BoparaMark RamprakashRoland ButcherEoin MorganBrian Close (captain)David Bairstow (wkt)Steven FinnDevon MalcolmAlfred ‘Tich’ Freeman.”
Does the Judge qualify? He had a fantastic Test career, though it was on-off towards the end. Under Ben and Baz he’d have averaged 50+ and taking most spinners apart. Another one who would have really thrived, I suspect, is Phil Tufnell.Ali Martin pays tribute to Stuart Broad
That giddy performance [in 2015] across the road from his beloved Nottingham Forest was the apex mountain for a super fit and robust right-armer never more in his element than when there was nip and carry to exploit. And when he vaporised South Africa the following winter, that electric six for 17 at the Wanderers including five for one in 31 balls, not only did it seal yet another series at the clutch moment, it propelled him No 1 in the world Test bowling rankings. This period was the Broad supremacy.
“A wet hello,” squelches John Starbuck. “I reckon the current set of the match is Australia’s answer to Bazball. By batting time - which they have plenty of - they can win or draw this game and thus win the Ashes. One problem with Bazball is that it’s so frenetic that after a while your opponents, who are supposed to give in under the pressure, get used to it and play old-fashioned long-game cricket.“England have one way to play but it only asks one question: dazzle the opponents and they will wilt, won’t they? Another aspect is that Bazball is over too quickly, which the moneymen hosting the matches won’t like. Not that it’s not entertaining - it certainly is - but that in the long run the tortoises from down under are going to win. Opportunity - yellow tortoise-style bucket hats?”They would look quite smart with the Australian colours. As for the culture war, I can see both sides!“Would David Warner scoring a hundred on Stuart Broad’s indulgent farewell be peak Broadhousery?” asks Akshay Shah.What’s this now? Broad is many, many things, but I’m most sure he’s ever been a shithouse. That word suggests underhand behaviour, no? Broad will look you right in the eye as he changes the bails, or tells you the Ashes are void, or nicks one to slip via Brad Haddin and takes guard.Stuart Broad watches as David Warner edges through the slips. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The GuardianUpdated at 17.28 BST“Greetings from Golspie in the Highlands... Aussie on holiday,” writes David Gilbank. “I’m not particularly superstitious but I’ve noticed that any time throughout this series, each time I listen to the BBC or watch the telly, disaster strikes the Aussie team. So I’ve resolved to stay close to the Guardian updates. This is working. No telly or radio for me.”Now that’s what I call a selfless sacrifice.Let’s have a bit of statgasmic love for Usman Khawaja, who moved past 5,000 Test runs just before the rain arrived. In the history of this thing, 160 gentlemen have scored at least 1,000 runs while opening the batting. None of them can match Khawaja’s average of 62.10.
62.10 Usman Khawaja (Aus)
61.10 Herbert Sutcliffe (Eng)
56.90 Bruce Mitchell (SA)
56.47 Len Hutton (Eng)
56.37 Jack Hobbs (Eng)
Cheers Jim, hello everyone. I see I’ve timed my arrival about as well as I used to time my on-drive. The break probably favours England, who were looking a little befuddled by the serenity of Australia’s progress. The forecast is much better tomorrow so we should still get a result. And – who knew – it could well be an Australian victory.