England celebrated the summer solstice with a 4th straight victory in the series to leave themselves just 1 win away from their first whitewash of Australia in ODI cricket.
Match Report
Australia's captain Tim Paine once again won the toss and this time elected to have his team bat first. A reshuffled Australian batting line-up with Finch back at the top of the order alongside Travis Head got Australia off to a solid if not spectacular start putting on a opening stand of 101 in 19 overs. Head was the first wicket to fall slapping an Adil Rashid long hop straight to deep-mid wicket. Thereafter the in-form Shaun Marsh joined Aaron Finch and the pair continued their steady accumulation. With 11 overs remaining and the score at 221-1, Australia seemed to have laid the foundations for a late charge and would have been hoping to set England a chase in region of 350. As it was that impetuous never really got going. Finch was LBW to Wood for exactly 100 with Marcus Stoinis bowled by the same bowler playing back to a full length delivery for the second time in the series. Shaun Marsh went to his 2nd century of the series with a massive six of Adil Rashid in an over that cost the leg-spinner 23 runs. With Ashton Agar (promoted up the order) playing some nice shots at the other end things were starting to look positive for the Australia's for the first time in a while. However, Rashid returned with a vengeance to dismiss Agar for the 4th time in the in the series. Alex Carey, playing his first game in England never really got going and holed out to David Willey in the first ball of the 48th over. The next ball saw Shaun Marsh dismissed to a wonderful bit of fielding by Jason Roy who took a good catch running back towards the rope before flicking the ball 20yards to teammate Craig Overton who completed a simple catch. The scorecard will read caught Overton bowled Willey but it was the brilliance of Jason Roy that ultimately lead to the prize wicket of Marsh. Thereafter Australia stuttered along with Michael Nesser caught behind off Willey to give him 3 wickets in the same over. Willey followed that up by dismissing Tim Paine LBW and was very close to completing his first 5 wicket hall when Richardson popped up a ball just out of his own reach. Australian's finished on 310-8 - a competitive score on a good track.
England's response was all to familiar as Jason Roy and Johnny Bairstow eased England into a commanding position. England were always ahead of the run-rate and the game. Roy and Bairstow mixed aggressive hitting with excellent running to hustle the Australians in the field and once more highlighted the lack of an x-factor in Australian bowling attack needed to dismiss 2 batsman playing so well. Australia who included Nathan Lyon in their team (a change that I suggested they may consider in my last blog) decided to give the off-spinner some powerplay overs in a bid to stop England's free scoring in the power-play but to no avail. The pair brought up their 5th century stand together in just 16 innnings at the top of the order, equalling the previous most successful English ODI opening partnership of Marcus Trescothick and Nick Knight. Jason Roy who was the more aggressive of England's openers in this innings made his 2nd century of the series but was dismissed soon after and Johnny Bairstow also fell at precisely the half way mark with England already 183-2. Perhaps a sign of the differing form and fortunes of the 2 sides then saw Tim Paine drop a relatively easy chance of Alex Hales and with it you sensed Australia knew that their chances of a moral boasting win had gone. Hales and Root steadily re-built before Ashton Agar knocked over Root. Captain Eoin Morgan came out swinging before he too was dismissed by Ashton Agar. It was left to Jos Buttler, the man who missed out at Trent Bridge, to put the icing on cake with a 29 ball 54. England completed a 6 wicket victory with 32 balls to spare. This was England's 2nd highest ever run chase in One-Day cricket but it was completed with such assurance that it didn't really feel like that big on an achievement - business as usual.
Analysis
As well a gap in the quality and experience of players on both sides, the most striking difference between the 2 teams in this game was the contrast in belief. England believed that they could control the Australian innings and when set a score in excess of 300 they believed they could chase it down. Did Australia really believe they were going to win that match? It seemed to me like they were happy to be competitive after the debacle of the previous game and avoid another humiliating defeat.
300 is a good score and on another day with a full bowling line up at their disposable, in a tightly contested series, it might have been enough to win. However, it was Australia's conservative approach that ultimately saw them miss the opportunities presented to them to really take this game by the scruff of the neck.
While the top 3 all played well none of them really threatened the English attack or put Eoin Morgan under pressure. Indeed the Australian's were so passive that they allowed England's part-time spinner Joe Root bowl 10 overs on the bounce for just 44 runs. Given that England decided to rest their main strike bowler Liam Plunkett this afforded Morgan the luxury of rotating his other bowling options including the debutant Craig Overton who was only required to bowl 7 fairly expensive overs.
Compare that with England who took their chances when they mattered, including dismissing Marsh just when it looked like Australia might get away, who punished any poor ball (and a few good ones) that the Ozzies bowled and who had that extra gear in Jos Buttler to slip into just when the Australian's thought they might be back in with a sniff. England dominated the big moments in the match because they believed that they would and ultimately that lead to a fairly comfortable win.
A few years ago we saw England hit an all-time low in white ball cricket when they were knocked out of the World Cup held in Australia. The Australian innings reminded me of very much of that England side, a team that was so far off the pace of the post-T20 50 over game that they were never likely to be succesfull against far more dynamic opponents. England managed to successfully change their entire ethos as well as their personnel to become the number 1 side in ODI cricket. Do Australia have the leadership and players available to do the same?
I feel sorry for Tim Paine who has been given this hospital pass of a job that involves trying to stitch together a young, inexperienced team as well as overcome some of the problems caused by the previous leadership group. I mentioned in my last blog that I doubted as a cricketer whether he was really good enough to get in the ODI side and at the moment alongside the pressures of captaincy, his cricket is suffering. Australia of course have always taken pleasure in targeting the opposition captain and feeling that with him under pressure the side will crumble. He's been hit in the face, made poor decisions at the toss, can't buy a run and now he is dropping simple catches. Can he find some kind of redemption in the final match?
As for England, in Bairstow and Roy they have 2 players in red-hot form. I don't think i've ever seen a pair of batsmen come out and hit the ball so cleanly from the off. This isn't slogging, this is measured, calculated hitting of the highest order.
Bairstow and Roy sit at the top of the all time most successful ODI opening partnerships
When you consider that Hales, Morgan and Buttler have made excellent contributions at some point during the series as well then English fans are right to be excited by their sides chances in the upcoming World Cup especially with some of the bowling options that should be back fit for England by then.
England's strength as a batting unit in numbers
Perhaps the one disappoint for England has been the form of Joe Root but there again it has not really been the type of series where they have needed a player of his qualities in the side. For the good of English cricket later in the summer we could really do with the Australian's taking a couple of early wickets in the final game to bring Root to crease, allow him to rebuild (this is his role in the side) and final get the monkey off his back by scoring an international century as a warm up to Indian test series - come on Australia, help us out!
Ozzies to win today. England under more pressure to get the whitewash, Australia to come out swinging
You could just about send a 2nd grade county side out and get the clean sweep. I think our bowlers are shellshocked and would struggle to defend anything at the moment
Yeah I agree, they aren’t really sure what to bowl anymore. They bowled ok in the first match and for the last 10 overs of the 2nd match but since then the pressure put on them is plain to see.
Glad we didn’t make too many changes for the game. There’s plenty of competition in the side anyway and the likes of Wood and Willey will no doubt be keen to make a strong impression while Woakes is unavailable as he could well replace one of them when fit.
From an Aussie fan perspective it's kind of painful to watch, but getting games into these players will benefit them long term. It's just a shame we don't have that one or two experienced bowlers for guidance