Well it truly was the Umpire’s call last night. England required 21 runs from 4 overs to win the Ashes series 4-0. The Oval was packed and fans were looking forward to the blockbuster finish, but the Umpires decided to call time on the action due to bad light and although they were following rules and regulations by the ICC, common sense should’ve surely twisted the rule just this once.

It certainly ended an entertaining day’s play as the 2013 Ashes series drew to a close with the final days play. A day which saw England bowled all out for 377. Australia then pushed on before declaring with a lead of 247, in which England had only the evening session to acquire the runs.

The session started positively for Captain Alastair Cook, who hit a early boundary in the first over. However for Joe Root things weren’t as straight forward as the young opener was caught from behind on 13.  The real star of the innings was England’s golden boy Kevin Pieterson who managed to woo the crowd with boundaries here, there and everywhere.

As the wickets tumbled and the runs scoring promptly, things looked to be heading for a magnificent end to a quite entertaining series which England have somewhat cruised to victory, Australia still angry with Stuart Broad failing to walk when being given out in the first test at Trent Bridge which recently was the main outburst from the Australia coach on local radio and resulted in a 20% match day fine. England have played top quality cricket, Ian Bell the main man guiding the three lions to victory with three hundreds in the series, without him England may have found themselves in tougher situations. Another key figure was James Anderson whose swing, pace bowling destroyed the Australian batting line up.

Ultimately England were the better side over the five tests and for now both teams can rest up and prepare for the T20s and ODIs coming up before the return Ashes series begins in Brisbane this winter. For England, more of the same will do nicely and hopefully they can replicate their famous victory down under in 2010/11. Australia need to improve, and on their own turf and home support it won’t be as easy for England in Australia as it was this summer.