The final Ashes test match gets underway The Oval on Thursday, Australia lead England 2-1 and will retain the urn and they now bid to close out a series win.
After Ben Stokes' heroics in the third test in Leeds England had the momentum coming into last week's penultimate contest at Old Trafford, Manchester but Australia had all the answers, coming out on top by 185 runs.
Steve Smith, who missed the third test with concussion returned for Australia and he put in another Man of the Match performance which included 211 of Australia's first innings total of 497/8.
England replied with 301 with Burns (81) and Root (71) faring best of their batsmen before another 82 runs from Steve Smith saw Australia bat England out of the game, setting up a declaration and plenty of time to seal victory.
England were bowled out for 197 on the final day with Cummins claiming the wickets of 4 of the top 5 in the England batting line up.
The Oval is the final stop for this series and England have named an unchanged squad although Ben Stokes is nursing a knock and will be montiored.
England Squad: Joe Root (c), Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Joe Denly, Jack Leach, Craig Overton, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes
Earlier results:
1st Test Edgabaston
England 374 and 146
Australia 284 and 487/7 decleared
Australia won by 251 runs.
2nd Test Lords
England 258 and 258/5 declared
Australia 250 and 154/6
Drawn test
3rd Test Leeds
Australia 179 and 246
England 67 and 362/9
England won by 1 wicket
4th Test Manchester
Australia 497/8 declared and 186/6 decleared
England 301 and 197
Australia won by 185 runs.
Series Top Run Scoers
Steve Smith 671 (5 innings)
Ben Stokes 354 (8 innings)
Rory Burns 323 (8 innings)
Marnus Labuschagne 291 (5 nnings)
Joe Root 247 (8 innings)
Series Top Wicket Takers
Pat Cummins 24 (4 matches)
Stuart Broad 19 (4 matches)
Josh Hazlewood 18 (3 matches)
Jofra Archer 16 (3 matches)
Nathan Lyon 16 (4 matches)
The Venue: Kennington Oval, London
England have won 4 and drawn 1 and lost 4 of the 9 test matches staged at this venue over the course of the last decade and that 1 draw came against Australia in the 2013 Ashes series.
The most recent test at the Oval saw England beat India by 118 runs 12 months ago with England scoring 332 and 423/8 declared to India's 292 and 345
Betting To Win the 5th Test
England 16/10
Draw 5/1
Australia even money
Prices are an average of what was available at the time of publication but subject to change.
The Verdict:
Steve Smith has proved to be the main difference between the sides with three match winning performances and the Australian's will now be fully focused on signing off with a series win. Given I put up a series draw as my 7/1 outright pick before the first test I'm hoping England can turn their fortunes around and I will look outside of the mtch result for a betting interest.
Although England finished well beaten at Old Trafford there were some positive signs from Jos Buttler and if he can come to the crease in a situation where England are not batting to save the game his player performance quote with WSB could well be on the short side with 1 point awarded per run and a chance of adding 20 for any catch.
Joe Root has been below par this series but still looks backable to score a 50 in England's 1st innings to me and finally I'll go with over 1085.5 total runs in the match in the belief we will see a big first innings score from at least one team.
Bets: Player Performance Jos Buttler over 76.5 at 12/10
Joe Root to score a 50 in the first innings? (yes) at 11/8
Total match runs over 1085.5 at 17/20
