Trott's Brilliance Sets Australia A Record Beating Task

England 332 and 373 for 9 dec (Trott 119, Strauss 77, Swann 63, North 4-98) lead Australia 160 by 545 runs. Jonathan Trott entered Ashes folklore with the innings of an instant veteran, as England's batsmen sauntered into a position of insuperable dominance on another enthralling day at The Oval. His 119 from 193 balls was the 18th century by a debutant in England's Test history and the first against Australia since Graham Thorpe in 1993, but in terms of the occasion, it ranked among the finest of all time. His efforts enabled Andrew Strauss to declare on 373 for 9, with 21 overs of the third day remaining, and Australia's target an unassailable 546. Trott had been a controversial selection for such a pressure-cooker contest, but to give the selectors credit where it is due, the skill, determination and confidence of his performance made the men around him in England's middle-order look like the international novices. His nerveless shot selection, at an even tempo of roughly a run every two balls, provided the scaffolding for a series of carefree cameos at the other end - including a farewell frolic from Andrew Flintoff, and a spanking 63 from 55 balls from Graeme Swann, whose confidence could hardly be higher going into the defining fourth innings. The Oval pitch, the subject of much controversy overnight, carried on producing wild puffs of dust from almost every delivery, but as England's tail clubbed a supine attack to all corners of South London, the heat went out of the debate about its merits. In fact, England's progress seemed at times almost too comfortable for their series prospects, as Australia's bowlers abandoned any hope of salvaging their team's situation and instead settled for damage limitation with a view to batting out for the draw. Nevertheless, the steep bounce that the part-time spinner, Marcus North, continued to extract was enough to confirm the suspicions that batting last, with men packed around the bat, will be a fraught experience. North, who came into the game with just two Test wickets to his name, emerged as the unequivocal pick of the attack, with 4 for 98 from 30 testing overs. Tea England 332 and 290 for 7 (Trott 83*, Swann 34*) lead Australia 160 by 462 runsJonathan Trott produced the innings of an instant veteran to build on Andrew Strauss's first-session 75, as England cemented their dominance of the fifth and final Test with an improbably serene day's batting at The Oval. By tea on the third afternoon, Trott had moved to within 17 of a debut century to rank, in terms of the occasion, among the finest of all time, as England's lead grew to a hefty 462 with three wickets still in hand, and seven sessions of a warp-speed contest still lying ahead of them. Trott had been a controversial selection for such a pressure-cooker contest, but to give the selectors credit where it is due, the skill, determination and confidence of his performance made the men around him in England's middle-order look like the international novices. His nerveless shot selection, at an even tempo of a run every two balls, provided the scaffolding for a series of carefree cameos at the other end - including a farewell frolic from Andrew Flintoff, who clubbed four fours in an 18-ball 22, before holing out to long-on to depart to an emotional ovation. The Oval pitch, the subject of much controversy overnight, was still producing wild puffs of dust from almost every delivery, but the surface itself remained as true as could be expected in the circumstances. At times England's progress seemed almost too comfortable for their series prospects, as Australia's bowlers abandoned any hope of salvaging their team's situation and instead settled for damage limitation with a view to batting out for the draw, but the steep bounce that the part-time spinner, Marcus North, continued to extract was enough to confirm the suspicions that batting last, with men packed around the bat, will be a fraught experience. In the course of Trott's 168-ball stay, his most palpable moments of alarm came from his first two deliveries of the morning, first when Peter Siddle believed he had made the breakthrough with an off-stump lifter (umpire Asad Rauf correctly ascertained that the ball had flicked only the thigh pad on the way through to Brad Haddin) and then when Trott followed up that escape with an awkward spoon into the covers off a leading edge. With impressive ease, however, he put those dramas out of his mind, perhaps sensing that he'd experienced the most capricious deliveries that could come his way. He added 118 for the fourth wicket with Andrew Strauss, whose unflappable composure served as a moist flannel on his country's fevered brow, as he left the ball with nerveless certainty outside off, and demanded that Australia's bowlers bowled to his strengths rather than probe for non-existent weaknesses. The pair ensured there would be no continuation of the late-evening hiccup that had taken a layer of sheen off England's remarkable second day, as set out their stall to bat through the day, before upping the ante in the final half-hour before lunch. Strauss was looking a dead-cert to claim his, and England's, second hundred of the series when he lashed Stuart Clark for three fours from nine balls faced, but with four balls remaining before the interval, he was lured by a ball of fuller length from North, who extracted enough rip off the track to find the edge to slip. Matt Prior, for once, played only a minor role in England's momentum shift - although he did manage to send Ricky Ponting into the lunch break with a mouthful of blood after drilling the ball into his face at silly mid-off. Three overs after the break, he called for a crazy single after picking out the dead-eyed Simon Katich in the covers, and was run out by a distance for 4. Nevertheless, his departure ensured that the crowd got one last glimpse of the man they really wanted to see, and when Flintoff clubbed his second delivery violently through midwicket for four, it was abundantly clear how he intended to pace his final Test innings. Three more boundaries followed, each greeted with rapture, but alas the magic could not last. On 22, Flintoff came down the track once more to launch North into the Harleyford Road, but Siddle steadied himself on the long-on ropes to pouch a simple catch. The Aussies stood in the middle to applaud Flintoff back to the pavilion as he saluted all corners of the ground, while down the steps - replacing him in every sense - came the man of the moment, Stuart Broad. He did not disappoint either. Feeding off Mitchell Johnson's renewed erratic line and length, he dabbed the first of his five fours through backward point, then climbed into North in a violent over containing three further biffs down the ground, the first of which went arrow-straight back over the bowler's head to land just inside the boundary's rope. He eventually took one swipe too many, and picked out Ponting in the covers, but Graeme Swann carried on in the same aggressive vein, feasting on a series of overpitched deliveries to rush to 34 not out at tea. At the other end, however, Trott just trotted along, a man seemingly in control of his, and England's, destiny.