Ashes 2019 5th Test venue: The Oval

The Oval, home of Surrey County Cricket Club, had hosted the first Test on English soil, back in 1880. Two years later, the ground hosted the iconic this-thing-can-be-done Test, the one that – directly or otherwise – gave birth to the introduction of The Ashes. The contest, thus, is back to where it had started.

The Oval has traditionally produced bigger scores than any other ground in England. It has also assisted spin significantly more. While a part of that can be attributed that the venue – with a few exceptions, of course – hosts the last Test of the English summer, the pitch also plays key role.

Five Ashes Tests have been played at The Oval this century. Australia have won twice, in 2001 and 2015, both by an innings, but they were both in dead-rubber Tests. England won by 197 runs in 2009 to clinch regain the urn, while they ran out of time in a breakneck chase in 2013.

However, there is little doubt that the most iconic of them all was in 2005, when Kevin Pietersen’s 158 helped England regain The Ashes after 16 years.

Here are the numbers for The Oval in this century:

The Oval	All	England	Australia	Ashes
Tests	19	19	5	5
Runs/90 overs	304	301	335	315
4s/90 overs	38.1	36.6	40.8	39.1
6s/90 overs	0.2	1.2	2.2	1.5
50+ scores/Test	6.68	3.68	3.40	7.00
100s/Test	2.21	1.00	1.80	2.60
SR (B/W)	66.5	65.0	59.6	64.7
5WIs/Test	0.89	0.32	0.80	1.20
10WMs/Test	0.11	0.00	0.40	0.40