By Daniel Brettig
September temperatures nudged eight degrees in Southampton, and Australia succeeded in keeping England’s white ball team cold in their first match since the unveiling of Brendon “Bazball” McCullum as all-format coach.
The Australians battered England at each of their two most recent World Cup meetings – in India last year and the Caribbean in June – a pair of results which contributed to the sacking of Matthew Mott to be replaced by McCullum.
After a three-game trip to Scotland helped them acclimatise, the visitors looked somewhat better attuned for the task than an England side shorn of Test players by international cricket’s increasingly crowded schedule – the red ball series against Sri Lanka ended a couple of days ago.
If Mitchell Marsh’s side kept the door open for England by melting away from the batting crease after a slugging start by Travis Head (59, 23 balls) and Matt Short (41 off 26), a target of 180 proved more than enough for Adam Zampa (2-20) and the returning Josh Hazlewood (2-32) to defend. England were bowled out for 151 in the final over to lose by 28 runs.
Head’s early avalanche, during which he successfully overturned a caught behind decision against him, included cuffing 30 runs from Sam Curran’s first over, the fifth of the innings: four, four, six, six, six, four. Only Ricky Ponting and Glenn Maxwell among Australians have struck as many runs in a single T20 international over.
“We’ve had a consistent theme at the top, and whoever has come in has been able to play that,” Head said. “I’ve worked extremely hard over a period of time to play freely. I took my opportunity a couple of years ago, and the freedom [coach Andrew McDonald and Test captain Pat Cummins] give me has helped as well.”
Travis Head celebrates his half-century at the Rose Bowl.Credit: Getty Images
After some poor fielding displays in the West Indies, the Australians were far sharper this time around, with Tim David and Cameron Green each taking sublime catches in the outfield to help close things out.
Zampa, in particular, proved almost impossible to master, skidding his leg breaks and googlies towards stumps and pads, and giving up only a solitary boundary in four overs while plucking the wickets of debutant Jacob Bethell and “finisher” Jamie Overton.
Only a stand of 56 in five overs between Liam Livingstone and Sam Curran threatened to pull England back after they slumped to 4-52 in the chase, but that revival was snuffed out when Sean Abbott (3-28) and Hazlewood struck within four balls.
Hazlewood’s Test match class was underlined by how he fooled Livingstone, hinting at a slower ball before whirring down a stock ball at good pace on an unerring line to draw a crooked bat and a drag onto the stumps.
Cameron Green again proved his worth with bat and ball.Credit: Getty Images
Australia’s major hiccup on the night was an apparent side strain for the young swing bowler Xavier Bartlett, who sauntered off the field with two balls of his allocation still to be bowled. All-rounder Green picked up the slack.
“Disappointing any time you see a young bowler go down,” Marsh said. “I think he’s hurt his side, but hopefully it’s not too bad.”
With McCullum back home in New Zealand, Marcus Trescothick was England’s interim coach and Phil Salt a locum captain in place of Jos Buttler. Harry Brook and Gus Atkinson were among the England Test players rested from a series that is being played largely to appease bilateral broadcast agreements.
The Rose Bowl was more or less at capacity, though, as Head made his now customary barnstorming start at the top of the order, accompanied by Short in place of the out of sorts Jake Fraser-McGurk.
Together, Head and Short ransacked 86 inside the powerplay, feasting on a pace attack that included Jofra Archer. Head’s innings was ended when he skied Saqib Mahmood off the final ball of the sixth over, but he had given Australia the ideal platform with a quartet of sixes.
A tactical pivot by Salt saw all Australia’s 10 wickets go down for a meagre 93 as the run rate slid drastically: the spin of Adil Rashid, Livingstone and Hull was far harder to swing over the fence.
Rashid and Livingstone scooped a combined 4-45 between them from seven miserly overs, before Archer came back to help snip off the Australian tail. Wickets fell so rapidly around Josh Inglis (37) that Green’s exit for 13 completed a team hat-trick.
“The bowlers dragged it back so well and we should have chased it realistically,” Salt said. “At times we could have taken our partnerships deeper.”
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