Australia v England ODI Series: Steve Smith stars as Aussies claim six-wicket victory at Adelaide
Just four days after claiming the T20 Cricket World Cup, England struggled to back up in their ODI clash against Australia, who crawled to a 6 wicket run win.
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There is life after Aaron Finch.
Australia’s new opening batting partnership of David Warner and Travis Head started life post-Finch - and preparations for next year’s 50-over World Cup - by plundering the England bowling attack in the opening One-Day International at Adelaide Oval on Thursday.
Chasing England’s 9-287 after a superb 134 from Dawid Malan, the Aussies made light work of the run chase - winning by six wickets with 19 balls to spare - after mainstay Warner and hometown hero Head produced a power-packed opening stand of 147 in only 19.4 overs.
The quickfire stand ended when Head was caught on the mid-wicket boundary by Phil Salt for 69 off just 57 balls.
Warner went on to make 86 from 84 deliveries.
While they had opened together four times previously in ODI’s, with an average stand of 86.5, this was the first time they had joined forces since former captain and opening batter Finch’s retirement from the international 50-over scene.
And they made the most of it.
The pair matched each other run for run before Redbacks captain Head mistimed a pull shot off Chris Jordan.
After a shaky start, his innings included 10 fours and a six.
It was the second-highest opening stand between the pair, following their massive 284 against Pakistan at the same venue in 2017.
Steve Smith, unveiling a new, more side-on batting technique, helped finish off England - the reigning one-day and Twenty20 world champion - in front of a crowd of 15,428 to give Australia a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Smith, averaging 60 in Test cricket, made a well-compiled, unbeaten 80 off 78 balls and revealed he has changed his technique because he felt he was moving too far across the crease, which denied him access to areas of the ground.
At one stage, Smith, after hitting a boundary, appeared to say to Warner, ‘I’m back baby’.
He certainly looked it.
MALAN MAKES UP FOR LOST TIME
Dawid Malan took his frustration of missing England’s Twenty20 World Cup final triumph out on Australia.
Overlooked for last Sunday’s final - a five-wicket win against Pakistan at the MCG - after suffering a groin injury during the tournament, Malan played a heroic lone hand as England overcame a shocking start to post a competitive score.
As Australia began one-day life under a new captain, Test skipper Pat Cummins, following Finch’s 50-over retirement, Malan held the innings together after England, who were sent into bat in the day-night encounter, were reeling at 3-31 and 4-66.
The left-hander made a spectacular 134 off 128 balls - nearly half of England’s score.
His highest ODI score - and second one-day century - included 12 fours and four big sixes.
Striding to the crease at No. 3 following the wicket of Phil Salt with the score at 18, Malan steadied the innings while wickets were falling around him before hitting some glorious shots, including a massive six over long-on from the bowling of speedster Cummins.
Malan was fortunate to dodge an lbw decision on 10 off Cummins when the ball just pitched outside leg stump while Ashton Agar put down a sharp, diving, one-handed chance when he was on 33.
But he made the most of his early luck to produce an innings of sheer class.
The next highest scorer was No. 9 David Willey, who made an unbeaten 34.
CUMMINS SETS THE SCENE
Pat Cummins made a dream start to his Australia one-day captaincy.
After becoming Australia’s 27th One-Day International skipper following Finch’s departure, Cummins won the toss and bowled under blue skies and quickly put England to the sword.
After England openers Phil Salt and Jason Roy started aggressively, Cummins quickly changed the course of the match by finding the outside edge of Salt’s bat with the final ball of the fourth over, handing Steve Smith a regulation catch at second slip.
Roy (6) departed soon after - the victim of a superb inswinger from left-arm quick Mitchell Starc - putting England in early trouble at 2-22.
Cummins, who was bedridden with a bout of gastro leading into the game, then had James Vince (5) caught behind by Alex Carey as the visitors slumped to 3-31 in the eight over, with Cummins snaring 2-13.
ENGLAND MALAISE
While Australia ushered in a new era of white-ball cricket, England started like it was still hungover from its Twenty20 World Cup triumph.
The one-day clash was held just four days after its spectacular five-wicket triumph against Pakistan in the final at the MCG and one of England’s heroes, Moeen Ali, warned that his side would struggle to get up for the 50-over games.
Only three members of the England XI who played in the final backed up against Australia - captain Jos Buttler, Phil Salt and Chris Jordan.
Salt made 14, Buttler 29 and Jordan 14 but the malaise appeared to creep through the entire team.
Moeen said it was “horrible’’ that his team had to back up for a one-day clash so soon after claiming the world T20 crown rather than get time to enjoy the spoils of victory.
AGAR HITS THE HEIGHTS
Soon after nearly taking a freakish one-handed catch off the bat of Dawid Malan, Ashton Agar sent Liam Dawson back to the pavilion with a brilliant run out.
Moving quickly to his right after Dawson pushed the ball to point off the bowling of Cameron Green, Agar fielded the ball, steadied and threw the stumps down at the bowler’s end with Dawson (11) well short of his ground.
Such was spinner Agar’s swiftness that Dawson stopped sprinting, knowing a direct hit would end his innings.
Australia great Michael Hussey hailed Agar’s work, describing him as one of the best fielders in the world.
“He’s a standout in the field,’’ Hussey said.
Agar later showcased his athleticism again when he leapt over the boundary line on the eastern side of Adelaide Oval to save a six off Malan.
He caught the ball in one hand and threw it back into play before hitting the turf.
The next over he ended Malan’s innings by taking a catch on the boundary off Adam Zampa.
CRASH: AUSSIES, ODI’S ON TRIAL AS HEAT ON ‘MIDDLE SON’
—Robert Craddock
It’s not just Australia on trial at the Adelaide Oval against England … it’s the game itself.
Come on 50 over cricket. What have you got for us? It’s time to polish the shoes, flick back the hair and show us how you can dance.
Another television rights deal will be decided in the next few months and if Cricket Australia wants decent coin for selling white ball internationals it must unveil a slick product.
Pat Cummins’ effort to rise from his sickbed in an admirable effort to lead Australia in the 50 over format for the first time is the sort of commitment this format needs.
The fans need to know players care about it before they care about it themselves.
Over the past few years Australia has barely ever chosen a full strength side in the 50 over game.
Players tend to drift in and out of the team, missing matches or tours, occasionally for lightweight reasons.
The fans are not silly. They can smell a set-up with lukewarm commitment to the cause as they ask “if the players are not that fussed about it, why should we be?’’
Fifty over games between World Cups – the next one is in India next year – have occasionally felt like tennis tournaments between the majors.
It’s a shame because a great 50 over game – such as the last World Cup final between England and New Zealand – can rate among the finest games of cricket ever played.
The 50-over game is under pressure because the T20 World Cup was such a fine showpiece.
Just when many of us were thinking the T20 format was losing some snap and crackle in franchise cricket due to endless games which mean next to nothing, along comes a World Cup where wickets are lively, small nations throw knockout punches against the big boys and the fan support for Asian nations goes off the charts.
When the T20 concept was born two decades ago in England former English captain Mike Atherton wrote a column saying it would not be Test cricket that would be squeezed by T20 revolution it would be the “middle son’’ – 50 over cricket.
And so it has proved. The extra layers of Test cricket with deteriorating wickets, four innings, five days and complex plots gives it a narrative which makes it much like a five-star restaurant sitting beside a burger bar – it is different enough to T20 cricket not to be threatened by it.
But 50 over cricket, like T20 cricket played on the same day with a white ball, needs to sparkle to absorb the competition from its little brother which is currently the superior game.
Will Starc, Cummins, Hazlewood make next World Cup?
Here’s looking at you champ ...
Normally in white ball cricket Australia is the team drawing captivated eyeballs from their opposition but the three match 50 over series which starts in Adelaide on Thursday is a different narrative.
England is setting the pace in white ball cricket and Australia are the ones under pressure to keep up with them.
England will return to the Adelaide Oval as white ball wonders on Thursday, seven years after leaving the same ground in utter despair.
In many ways it’s fitting most of Jos Buttler’s World Cup T20 winning players will feature in the England 50 over side that plays Australia in Adelaide because this was the ground on which their nation bounced off the bottom of the barrel.
And a very deep barrel at that.
In the 50 over World Cup of 2015, England lost badly to Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka before being bundled out of the tournament in shame after a narrow loss to Sri Lanka in Adelaide.
It was the point where England decided enough was enough. They launched their revolution, recruited Eoin Morgan as captain and Trevor Bayliss as coach, chose a young, uninhibited side and roared off to a successful generation.
“We talked about emulating what Australia and New Zealand did at that World Cup,” Morgan said, who added his team were “miles’’ off the pace.
Now they are setting it.
Australia is asking itself should it have a separate white ball coach like England has with Australia’s Matthew Mott, whether it should pick more specialist white ball players as England have been doing for years and how to get some spring in its white ball step.
Australia needs to decide whether its all format attack of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood can push through to next year’s 50 over World Cup in India.
In theory it sounds an easy “yes’’ but there are mountains to climb – an Indian Test series and an Ashes series – ahead of it.
The series is the start of the Cummins captaincy era following the retirement of Aaron Finch.
Early ticket sales may be unspectacular but local fans will be interested in the performance of Adelaide’s Travis Head in his new role at the top of the order replacing Finch.
In some ways it is three match series like this which are a true test of a team’s motivation because they are not part of the qualification system for next year’s World Cup.
Both teams, particularly England, are likely to be having a post-World Cup let-down with all-rounder Moeen Ali saying it was “horrible’’ when players had to back up so soon after a major event.
Cricket often has to fight for its coverage in England but World Cup wins are precious events and the national press gave England’s success due recognition with headlines like “Kings of Cricket,’’ “Best of both worlds,’’ “On top of the world’’, “Kings of England’’ and “All white now.’’
It was rousing stuff and it reinforced the fact that while Test cricket is the most celebrated form of the game, any World Cup win does a major job in popularising the sport.
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