Ashes 2015: Australia captain Michael Clarke given guard of honour by England

Michael Clarke will retire as possibly the greatest Australian cricketer ever to have never won an Ashes series in England. Unfortunately, he could knock off just 15 of those before a booming bouncer from Ben Stokes induced a faint edge.

Clarke, 34, is set to captain the Melbourne Stars in Australia’s Twenty20 Big Bash League and is likely to make the jump to television commentary box.

“This Test is as much about our character as anything else”. “We came here to win and we’ve been outplayed”.

“The boys have been training well and we are looking forward to hopefully finishing on a high”.

David Warner and Chris Rogers were both removed in the post-lunch session, having shared a 110-run stand.

England’s Moeen Ali throws a ball during a training session at the Oval cricket ground in London, Wednesday, August 19, 2015.

Smith then took over in another hundred partnership, unbroken with Adam Voges, as Australia negotiated awkward conditions under heavy cloud cover throughout and on a pitch with pace and occasional sideways movement.

England captain Alastair Cook is confident his 2015 Ashes winners can achieve a consolidation which proved beyond their 2005 predecessors.

“The pitch The Oval has prepared for the fifth Test is the greenest I’ve seen this entire series, and I believe there’s every chance we could see a third consecutive match finish inside three days”, he said in a column for the Sydney Daily Telegraph.

“I was impressed actually”, Hodgson told England Cricket after watching the likes of Jimmy Anderson, Joe Root and Stuart Broad. For majority of the day, the conditions were very good for bowling, but the English seamers did not show the same accuracy and consistency as the last couple of games. Obviously it’s Michael’s retirement as well, but not only that, there’s places up for grabs in this side.

England fielded an unchanged team after all-time leading Test wicket-taker James Anderson was again ruled out with the side injury that saw him miss the fourth Test.

“Sidds is still working extremely hard and continues to get better”. “He’s gutted about it”.

England have an undeniably tough winter ahead, against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates and then South Africa.

The Australia seamer Josh Hazlewood will also sit out the fifth Test after the decision was taken to rest him for the Kia Oval encounter.

The 24-year-old had done well in the series so far, taking 16 wickets at an average of 25.75.

When Rogers was named in April 2013 in Australia’s Ashes squad, and two months later was confirmed as a starter by new coach Darren Lehmann, Quiney reckoned there was close to universal acceptance among players because of what Rogers had produced to get there.