London: The fourth day’s play in the final Ashes Test at The Oval on Sunday had to be cut short owing to rain after Australian openers David Warner (58) and Usman Khawaja (69) shared a partnership of 135 as they sought to chase down a target of 384 to win the game and the series.

The pair withstood a barrage of hostile bowling as they steamed past 100 on their way to the highest opening partnership in the Ashes in England since 2009.

James Anderson floored Warner with an unintended beamer when Australia were just short of 100, as the batter somehow managed to fend off the shoulder-height ball with his bat handle.

Fast bowler Mark Wood hit Khawaja on the helmet with a bouncer, leading to a lengthy concussion check before the rain set in.

Stuart Broad, who on Saturday announced his retirement from cricket after this Test, and Anderson, celebrating his 41st birthday, had opened the bowling after being the last pair of England’s second innings that ended in the morning session, with Broad smashing the final ball of his batting career for a six.

Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali, Joe Root and Mark Wood all joined the attack for spells under the floodlights on an overcast day, but were unable to break through the Australian openers’ defences.

England had batted with great intent on Saturday with Zak Crawley (73), Joe Root (91) and Jonny Bairstow (78) helping to build a big lead as Australia’s bowlers struggled.

No team has chased down more than 263 at The Oval — a record set by England against Australia back in 1902 — although 10 sides have scored more than 300 on their way to draws at the south London ground.

Earlier, all eyes were on Broad after his surprise announcement after Saturday’s play as England resumed at 389/9. Broad, who was given a guard of honour by the Australians while coming out to bat alongside Anderson, pulled the last delivery of Mitchell Starc’s opening over into the stands over deep square leg.

After singles were turned down off the first five balls of Starc’s over, the sixth was smashed for a maximum six by Broad. It proved to be the final ball of Broad’s batting career as Anderson was out lbw in the next over bowled by off-spinner Todd Murphy.

Broad sprinted off to get ready for his bowling stint and despite enticing an inside edge first up from Warner, it landed safely.

Pacer Wood was introduced after lunch in the 33rd over of Australia’s second innings and Australia brought up two milestones. A Warner single saw the hundred partnership for the first wicket reached and Khawaja edged the next ball for four to go to his third half-century of the series.

Warner too got to his fifty, reaching the milestone off 90 balls in his final innings in England.

In the next over, Khawaja cut one for four to move on to 60, which took his total number of runs in the series to 483, taking him atop the run-scoring charts for this Ashes ahead of Crawley’s 480.

Play was suspended at 2.41pm local time when rain forced an early tea and eventually early stumps.

Written with inputs from Reuters, AP/PTI