Aussies v. Poms. ODI Series

[Pies4shaw]

England all out for 315 - Marnus, Zampa (happy 100th ODI) and Head the destroyers - and Australia in a canter. 3/317 with 6 overs to spare. Marsh, the God of All Batsmen and Green kept the scoreboard racing along with Head making a restrained 154*. Marnus doubled up with a beautifully compiled 77*.

Most days, 77* and 3/39, plus 4 catches, would make Marnus a certainty for POTM - but Head’s 154* from 124 balls and 2/34 got the nod.

Despite their collective brilliance with the bat, Marcus and Head were arguably even more tremendous with the ball - England looked on pace for about 400 but collapsed in the face of a spin “onslaught” of sorts. Australia took England’s last 8 wickets for 102 in 17 overs after England had reached 2/213 in 33 overs. Welcome to the captaincy, Harry Brooks.

No Starc, no Hazlewood, no Cummins, no Maxwell. No worries.

[Donny]

Excellent write-up, Mate. Just caught up with the news. Thanks. I was in hospital for the night. All good.

Top match for Labu. No surprise with Head. A star.

[Dark Beanie]

I was out last night but saw the scores when I got home.
Looked like England were cruising @ 6 runs per over and only 1 wicket down.

Good result when you consider the players that were missing.

PS. Glad to hear everything is OK Donny.

[Donny]

Thanks, DB. Had a Stent fitted. Back home and feeling good.

-----------------

Second ODI. England won the toss and elected to bowl.

After 41 overs. 9/246. Marsh 60, Carey 51*, Brydon Carse 3/73,

[Donny]

Aussies 270. Carey 74.

Poms 6/141. Smith 43*, Hardie 2/17. 26 overs gone.

[Donny]

England need 112 runs to win from 20.0 overs. RRR: 5.60

[Donny]

The Haz removes Smith for 49.

7/159.

[Donny]

The Aussies won easily. Starc 3/50.-, Maxy 2/15.

[Pies4shaw]

England crumbled in about 40 overs for 202 at Headingley. No Botham, no England there, it seems.

Carey was POTM for his tremendous knock (and some fine keeping). The Australian fielding was excellent, with Carey, F-McG (subbed on) and Hardie all taking tricky chances. Overcast sky in Leeds, Australia sent in to bat, a modest total and it looked hard at the halfway point. Unfortunately for England, Australia decided to play some bowlers in this game - of the three bowling additions, Starc took 3, Maxy 2 (for just 15 from 6 overs!) and Hazlewood took 2. Hardie also bowled well and economically for his 2/26 from 8 overs, removing two with successive deliveries to break the English top order.

The stats of the day, though, are that, from 9/221, Carey and a persistent Hazlewood put on 49 for the last wicket to get their side to a competitive total of 270 and then England lost their first 3 wickets trying to get those runs back. When Hardie chipped in, England had slumped to 5/65.

Head and Short put Australia off to a good start (46 for the first wicket), both falling for 29, then Marsh clubbed 60 from 59 balls - he played a lot of phenomenal shorts, including some beautiful straight on-drives of which GS Chappell and IVA Richards would have been proud but his definitive highlight for the day was demonstrating that Headingley is a little small for modern cricket, as he clubbed one of his sixes literally onto the road outside the ground, compelling the use of a replacement ball. It was a difficult wicket for batting, this time - apart from Carey, Marsh, Head and Short, only Hardie could get to a strike rate of 70 runs per 100 balls (he made 23 from 25) and no-one reached 50 for England - unless you count Maxy taking a 6 from the first ball he faced to reach 7 from 5 balls.

The big stat that needs mentioning, of course, is Australia's 14 wins in a row in ODIs.

[Donny]

So good to see Carey get PotM. Fantastic team player. Other than appealing, we hardly hear from him. Just 'gets it done'.

[Donny]

"Alex Carey has got his spot due to an injury to Josh Inglis and has capitalised on the chance

Having not batted in a match in over six months, Alex Carey says Australia's predicament midway their batting innings in the second ODI helped him seize his first opportunity back in the 50-over team.

Carey, whose last innings was his match-winning 98 not out in the second Test against New Zealand in March, says his approach was "laid out in front" him after Australia slipped to 9-221 batting first at Headingley."

CA.

[Donny]

Tomorrow. Third Match. 9.30 PM.

[Donny]

This, for a series win.

[K]

FTB Smith clean bowled yet again!!

Yes, again!! How many times has FTB been LBW or clean bowled in the last 18 months?? Wow. His defective technique is being destroyed!!

Potts his tormentor this time. Potts? England are rebuilding. Just some inexperienced no name. But way too good for FTB Smith.

[Pies4shaw]

I see Archer’s spell of violent headhunting in 2019 finally got him the wicket he wanted. It wasn’t a Test, he top-scored, it was a catch on the rope as Bradsmith tried to hit another 6 - and it was just a ODI. Still, I suppose JA takes whatever scraps he can get. It’s a big moment, though - 5 years in the making. Perhaps he’ll be named “Persistent Bowler of the Decade” or something like that. And, of course, at least Bradsmith has an average facing Archer, now.

Anyway, 6/226 - Short 14, Marsh 24, Green 42, Marnus a duck, Maxy 30 and The God of All Batsmen 60. Carey is 48*. 8 overs to come.