Cricket Ashes series, fifth TestThis one is going to the wire. You can sense it in the air. The bad weather that has been promised crept surreptitiously across The Oval during yesterday afternoon, the gloom and then the light rain preventing any play beyond tea-time with 37 overs lost in total.
If the crowd, or some of them, groaned their displeasure - how long since we heard cries of "Get on with it"? - it was with mixed feelings and mostly Australian accents: every over lost beyond the 24 it is possible to make up over the next three days is an over closer to the draw England require to win the Ashes.
England are under the cosh, though. The pitch remains good, and they do not possess a bowler of the calibre of Shane Warne to tease and torment the opposition. So the Australia openers Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden have made considerable hay with an unbroken opening stand of 112, the 14th such century partnership they have made together since Steve Waugh lost patience with Michael Slater and instigated Langer's renaissance in the equivalent match here four years ago. Langer's response then was an unbeaten 102 before retiring hurt, concussed by Andy Caddick's bouncer. By then, however, he and Hayden had added 158.
Since then Langer has scarcely taken a backward glance, averaging more than 51 in as many matches, with 14 hundreds.
Weather permitting, he will resume this morning within 25 runs of his 22nd Test hundred, which will elevate him to sixth place in the Australian list. With him will be Hayden, who has scrapped his way grim-faced to 32 as if his life depended on it. In professional terms it probably does, for no other Australian has gone as many innings as he, 30, without passing 70 while retaining his place.
This was a million miles from the bludgeoning bully-boy who for a couple of years in his pomp batted, according to Waugh, as relentlessly as Bradman: he knows only too well failure to retain the Ashes will lead to the dismantling of a great side, with his name at the top of the list.
But Hayden's determination yesterday carried with it ominous overtones: Langer's exuberance may have dominated their partnership, but Hayden, one feels, is cooking up a big one.
As England trooped from the field, they will have reflected that this was their first wicketless session this summer. It is no time to start. But without the variety and additional cutting edge brought by Simon Jones, the attack, on pitches such as this, looks vulnerable. Now they have the dual task of squeezing wickets out of a pitch with little margin for bowling error, while restricting the Australian scoring, both equally valuable. How Vaughan manipulates his bowlers and fielders to achieve that will be a big test of his leadership.
The bowlers strove for the breakthrough but it was a battle. Once more Steve Harmison, provided with the bounce and pace he craves, looked a gear short of full throttle, unable to ruffle Australian feathers as he did in the series' pyrotechnic opening. At the other end, Matthew Hoggard charged in as enthusiastically as ever, but found none of the hooping swing of Trent Bridge to assist him and both batsmen played him with few alarms other than Langer's fierce slash on 30 that Andrew Strauss, in the gully, lost completely against the background. When Andrew Flintoff replaced Harmison, he hit the ground running, but even he could not blast a way through.
Langer's treatment of Ashley Giles was just as harsh, when, with the half-century stand already gathered in, the spinner was introduced at the Pavilion End. A calculated one-over assault saw the second ball belted over long-on for six, the fourth similarly smacked over midwicket and the last assailed similarly but less successfully. Giles was withdrawn from the fray and brought back at the other end, Warne's end, from where he collected himself admirably and might have had Langer's wicket as the batsman swept and missed.
Billy Bowden, who earlier had ended the England innings by sending Giles packing with a dubious lbw decision that brought Warne his sixth wicket, thought otherwise. Langer, on 65, might have been stumped, too, as he propped forward, missed and overbalanced, but although Geraint Jones gathered the ball cleanly he had taken a backward step in so doing - a bit "clubby" - and the time spent in getting ball back to stumps was critical.
The best chance of a breakthrough came when Michael Vaughan turned to Paul Collingwood's bustling medium pace as a partnership breaker. Langer, having just reached his half century, with two sixes and six fours, slashed hard and the ball flew to the right of Marcus Trescothick at first slip, who, seeing it late, could only parry it away.
Some resistance down the order against the second new ball prolonged the England innings for a further hour and a half first thing, something that may prove significant, not just in terms of the 54 runs added but the full session or more of play it represents.
Overnight: England 319-7 (A J Strauss 129, A Flintoff 72; S K Warne 5-118).
England First Innings
G Jones b Lee 25
A Giles lbw b Warne 32
M Hoggard c Martyn b McGrath 2
S Harmison not out 20
Extras b4 lb6 w1 nb7 pens 0 18
Total (105.3 overs) 373
Fall: 1-82, 2-102, 3-104, 4-131, 5-274, 6-289, 7-297, 8-325, 9-345
Bowling: McGrath 27-5-72-2; Lee 23-3-94-1; Tait 15-1-61-1; Warne 37.3-5-122-6; Katich 3-0-14-0.
Australia First Innings Close
J Langer not out 75
M Hayden not out 32
Extras lb2 nb3 pens 0 5
Total 0 wkts (33 overs) 112
To Bat: R Ponting, D Martyn, M Clarke, S Katich, A Gilchrist, S Warne, S Tait, G McGrath.
Bowling: Harmison 8-1-21-0; Hoggard 7-1-21-0; Flintoff 7-2-20-0; Giles 7-0-31-0; Collingwood 4-0-17-0.
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