London: England defeated Australia by 135 runs in the fifth and final Ashes Test at The Oval on Saturday to square the series 2-2. However, Australia as holders of the urn had already retained the trophy.
Meanwhile, it was a series to remember for Australian batsman Steve Smith. Despite missing three innings of the Ashes series and returning to Test cricket after a gap of 16 months, Smith managed to attain the number one batsman spot in the ICC Test rankings.
The 30-year-old batsman ended the series with 774 runs from seven innings at an average of 110.57. The sequence of his scores were 144, 142, 92, 211, 92, 80 and 23.
Interestingly, England skipper Joe Root says Steve Smith has been a 'pain' for him and the difference at the Ashes that “probably cost” his nation the urn.
''He's been a pain really for me, yeah. He's played extremely well. He's obviously the number one batter in the world for a reason. In difficult conditions he stood up and done something very special and has been the difference really, he has,'' Root said.
Also, Root feels that Ashes series ending in a draw is a 'fair result'.
''It looks a hell of a lot better than three-one. I think it's probably a fair result if you look at the whole series. People might disagree with that but look at Lords and things could of been very different after that game,'' Root said.
