Steve Smith remained after Jofra Archer dented Australia’s reply to England 294 on both of the fifth and final Ashes Test at The Oval an immovable thing.
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Smith (59no) led into the game with 671 runs in the show and also long that to 730 by tea from south London after notching his first time fifty-plus score in as many innings this summer and 10th in a row against England.
Australia were 147-4 in the rest – Smith by beating Jack Leach over wide-long to get a 20, completing his half-century.
Archer has hit three times, removing the desperately out of form David Warner (5) and then Marcus Harris (3) in the opening session, even prior to ousting Marnus Labuschagne (48) in the second – Sam Curran also impregnated together with the scalp Matthew Wade (19).
After Warner was out caught behind on review Labuschagne and smith place on 69 for the third wicket and also also a squared-up Harris edged to slide to leave 14-2 to the tourists.
But with Labuschagne final in on a fifty in six Ashes inningsthat he had been trapped lbw as he chased his tried leg-side shot, before Curran ousted Wade leg before.
Warner had previously prevented the ignominy of four straight ducks but still dropped, with his dismissal ensuring there have been a record-extending 18 opening stands under fifty in this show, beating the 16 found from the four-Test, West Indies vs England show in 1934-35.
The left-hander is averaging only 9.33 in the series, and it has produced double figures just once in nine innings, at the first knock at the next Test at Headingley when he battled into 61.
Smith has no such troubles – though he has been troubled by the left-arm swing of Curran at times on Friday, together with all the Surrey star with a couple of vocal lbw appeals turned down following curling deliveries back .
England were bowled out 31 balls into the morning session after progressing in their gruesome 271-8 – Jos Buttler (70) and Leach (21) extending their ninth-wicket stand to 68.
Buttler was bowled off inside border and pad as Pat Cummins (3-84) moved onto 27 wickets for the series, while Leach hauled on hitting to hands Mitchell Marsh (5-46) his inaugural Test five-for.
Watch continued policy of the fifth Ashes Test live on Sky Sports The Ashes (channel 404). You could even follow over-by-over comment and in-play clips on our rolling blog on skysports.com along with the Sky Sports app.
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