COVERITLIVE.COM

9:58

GOOD MORNING and welcome to this historic fifth Ashes Test at the Brit Oval ... and what a game we have in store. England and Australia, locked at 1-1, find themselves in a single match shoot-out for The Ashes.

10:01

Aussies be warned, Andrew Flintoff is set to haul his brittle body into action for one last Test match .... and he will want to sign off with a win. This is the guy that writes his own scripts ... and this one reads: England win.

10:06

No news on the teams yet, but the word is Australia will play the same team that rather flukily beat England in three days at Headingley... which means an all pace attack.

10:09

Three things to remember here: 1. Follow the match on our sparkling Cricket Score Centre by clicking the image above. 2. Watch highlights 30 mins after stumps on the ECB TV player above. 3. Join me for all the banter live at the Oval. English, Aussies ... the whole world is welcome.

10:13

[Comment From wild dog ]
Hey Ali just a quick one hows the weather and have u guys found any more Saffers to throw in todays line up?

10:16

Well we might have as it happens - Jonathan Trott is braced for a Test debut. Born in Cape Town, but to an English father and he has always held a British passport. He did however play for South Africa Under-19s....

10:16

The weather is glorious here ... so don't expect that to save you Australia!

10:17

[Comment From The Aussi Bat ]
Talk about hype, who are you trying to conviince Ali - yourself, the viewers or perhaps even the English team. Unless the weather intervenes England is always on shakey ground, however even the weather will not help this time

10:17

We deal with sport in two ways on this side of the world my friend ... blind optimism, followed by scathing criticism when they fail.

10:22

[Comment From The Aussi Bat ]
Isn't that the truth though. I wish England well and hope the test goes the full distance for a good result - either way. believe it or not I am not totally one eyed and it would be great if the result was really close, even so "come on aussies"

10:24

Good man. We've had some quality banter with the Aussies on the blog this summer, so keep it coming.

10:24

Right .. THE ENGLAND TEAM IS IN!

10:26

Freddie comes in for Graham Onions ... Trott in for Bopara (which we knew).

10:27

So ... Strauss, Cook, Bell, Trott, Colly, Prior, Flintoff, Broad, Swann, Anderson, Harmison.

10:27

[Comment From wild dog ]
is bell batting at 3 or 4? english middle order looks a little suspect there??

10:27

Bell (aka the start of the tail) will be at No3. Unsure yet whether Trott or Colly will bat at No4.

10:29

Aussies unchanged ... so all pace attack.

10:31

[Comment From mark ramps ]
wheres ramprakash in that team sheet, hes the best on driver since the cordless drill

10:31

[Comment From t in spain ]
morning ali, morning all, do you think that the pitch can give us a result or does it look a typical batsmans paradise like normal at the oval.

10:32

England have WON THE TOSS and will BAT.

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