Ashes: England dreams of ‘fairytale’ farewell for Stuart Broad after announcing his retirement from Test cricket, says batting coach

England are dreaming of a ‘fairytale’ five-for from Stuart Broad to fire them to an Ashes leveling win in the legend’s final Test.

Australia reached 135 without a loss on a rain-ravaged fourth day at the Oval, needing a further 249 runs to complete their second-highest run chase and take a first run win here since 2001.

But with the tourists threatening to spoil Broad’s farewell party, England are hoping their fast bowler in retirement can win one last game to take the series to 2-2.

“If there’s one fairy tale left, the ideal would be if it was Stuart’s last five-for,” said hitting coach Marcus Trescothick. “Two to win and he runs in and gets his last five-for – something like that would be brilliant. It’s wonderful to dream about.

“He writes his own stories and hopefully there is another story to write and he can come out and have a great day.

“We want to win the game for the team, but with Stuart’s last game you have that little bit extra. He’s going above and beyond and it won’t get any bigger than what we have now, especially if we’re going to win the game. So let’s go and win.’

Following his shock announcement of his retirement on Saturday night, Broad received a guard of honor from Australia and a rousing standing ovation from the Oval crowd when he came to bat on Sunday morning.

He hit what turned out to be his last delivery in Test cricket for six off Mitchell Starc, with Jimmy Anderson then falling lbw to Todd Murphy to take England 395 all out.

Broad was unable to break through with the ball on Sunday, however, as Australian openers David Warner and Usman Khawaja chased unbeaten half-centuries in the pursuit of 384 before rain wiped out half of the day.

With better weather forecast on Monday, Trescothick said, “We’re still pretty positive. They had a good start and saw the new ball. But the new ball seems to be the best time to hit.

“A couple of times early in the morning and suddenly we’re back in the mix. We have 250 runs on the bench. That’s still a long way to go.’

At Broad’s tribute on Sunday, Trescothick added: ‘It was a great reception. It was really nice to see Stuart getting a fair reward for the hard work and dedication he put into it for so long.”

Trescothick also insisted that Mark Wood has no injury, despite Ben Stokes only introducing him in 33rd. “It was a tactical decision,” he said. “Everyone is fit to bowl.”

Australia’s assistant coach Michael Di Venuto, meanwhile, believes his side have given themselves a great chance to secure a historic series win.

“There are a lot of guys here in the past who have played in the Ashes series and failed to win,” he said. “For some of those guys, we’re in a good position to get that on their resumes. It was an excellent start to our openers.’

England batting coach Marcus Trescothick says teammates dream of giving Broad a ‘fairytale’ by drawing series in his final game