England avoid follow-on as draw looms

Ian Bell helped England avoid the follow-on as the fifth Ashes Test headed towards a draw on Sunday's final day at The Oval.

Scorecard

At lunch, England were 350 for seven in reply to Australia's first innings 492 for nine declared -- a deficit of 142 runs.

Matt Prior was 35 not out, his best score of the series, and Graeme Swann 24 not out, with England having already won the five-match Ashes at 3-0 up.

England, who'd scored at barely two an over on Friday -- Saturday's fourth day was washed out completely -- struck 103 runs at nearly five an over in Sunday's first session.

Earlier Bell, England's leading batsman of the series, had made 45 to frustrate Australia's hopes of a first win in nine Tests and to avoid a first Ashes without a victory since they lost 3-0 in England in 1977.

Australia's hopes of achieving that consolation success were already slim after Saturday's washout.

England resumed on 247 for four, needing 46 more runs to avoid the follow-on. Bell was 29 not out and Test debutant Chris Woakes 15 not out.

Bell drove fast bowler Ryan Harris for two fours as he raised a fifty partnership with Warwickshire team-mate Woakes.

But Woakes fell for 25 when he edged Harris, the tourists' best bowler of the series, to Australia captain Michael Clarke at second slip.

Prior, so often a useful middle-order contributor for England, came in having managed just 86 runs in the series.

The wicketkeeper was hit on the head as he failed to get out of the way of a Harris bouncer.

But next ball Prior guided the paceman down to third man for four. As the sun tried to break through the clouds in south London, Prior then stuck two fours in as many balls off Harris, a pull followed by a less convincing nick past the slips.

Prior's two off Peter Siddle then took England past the score of 293 they needed to avoid the follow-on.

However, Bell's hopes of becoming only the fourth batsman after Australia's Don Bradman and England's Herbert Sutcliffe and Walter Hammond to score four hundreds in an Ashes series ended when he was caught one-handed low down the legside by wicketkeeper Brad Haddin giving debutant left-arm seamer James Faulkner his first Test wicket.

Nevertheless, Bell could be pleased with a series return of 545 runs at 68.12 including three centuries.

Haddin's excellent catch was his 27th dismissal of this Ashes -- just one shy of the wicketkeeping world record for any Test series set by compatriot Rodney Marsh, now a selector, against England in 1982/83.

Before lunch, Australia struck again when the first ball of Mitchell Starc's second spell saw the left-arm paceman clean bowl Stuart Broad middle stump.

But Swann then thumped several boundaries, including a straight six off opposing off-spinner Nathan Lyon.

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