JOE ROOT suffered another day of pain and humiliation as his England team descended towards a 4-0 Ashes series defeat.
Captain Root finished day four of the Fifth Test on 42 not out as England reached 93-4 – still 210 short of making Australia bat again.
But Root was struck an agonising blow on the right index finger by Mitchell Starc.
After lengthy treatment he was able to continue, but he was in obvious pain and it would surprise nobody if an x-ray reveal a break of some description.
While Root managed to survive until the close, the rest of England’s top-order were swept aside by a rampant Aussie attack.
Mark Stoneman was lbw for a duck, Alastair Cook missed a ball that turned, James Vince nicked off as usual and Dawid Malan was leg before.
In his brief innings, Cook became only the sixth man in Test history to reach 12,000 runs. It shows his quality and durability over the past decade and more.
England’s familiar struggles with the bat means that all four of Australia’s main bowlers – Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon – have taken at least 20 wickets in the series.
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England’s leading wicket-taker is James Anderson with 17, followed by Stuart Broad with 11.
It came after Australia finally declared on a monumental 649-7, the seventh-highes total they have ever conceded overseas.
In fact, in their last seven away Tests, England have eonceded their first, fifth, seventh and tenth highest totals outside England.
It is an astonishing statistic and shows just how impotent their bowling has become on foreign soil.
The temperature in the middle soared above 50 degrees and England were roasted.
Shaun and Mitch Marsh became the first brothers since Steve and Mark Waugh at the Oval in 2001 to score centuries in an Ashes Test.
Mason Crane performed okay but it says something about this series that we are getting excited about a bowler who took 1-193 on his debut.
They are among the worst figures in Test history.
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