Six of the best from Willey is England curer
The Auld enemy of Scotland proved too strong but england just about got the better of the old cricketing enemy Australia on an unexpectedly lowscoring night at the Oval.
The start of the Aussies’ attempt at redemption following the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal ended with the No1 side in the world reasserting themselves after the embarrassment of edinburgh.
england lost seven wickets in overtaking an under-par Australia total of 214 all out. But David Willey made his highest score for the hosts and smashed debutant Michael Neser for a straight six to finish things off alongside Liam Plunkett with 36 balls to spare.
Aaron Finch, with five centuries against england to his name, fell to Moeen Ali’s fourth ball. By that time Willey had struck with his second ball to dismiss Travis head and england were on their way.
Moeen and Adil Rashid then took five wickets between them aided by an array of awful shots by the Aussies.
When Marcus Stoinis fell to Rashid, Australia were 90 for five and heading for a thrashing that was only averted when Glenn Maxwell made his first halfcentury in one-day international cricket for 18 months.
Maxwell took 14 off Moeen’s last over to slightly spoil his figures and went on to 62 off 64 balls before Jonny Bairstow took a fine running catch on the boundary.
That was one of three wickets for another under-pressure bowler in Plunkett, who was the most expensive member of england’s attack in edinburgh. When Andrew Tye became Plunkett’s third victim, Australia were about 100 short of par. They were in the game when england slipped to 38 for three before eoin Morgan and Joe Root added 105 for the fourth wicket. But, just as against Scotland, england stuttered as they stubbornly refused to adapt to the situation.
Jos Buttler could have been out twice in a skittish innings before he fell to Tye’s trademark knuckle ball and when Root departed to the excellent Billy Stanlake, england were wobbling at 163 for six.
Moeen again took england close to the finish line but once more gave it away as he attempted to hook Neser over the longest boundary in the ground.
But Willey provided an overdue calm hand on the tiller to take england one up with four to play.
Skipper Morgan claimed defeat to Scotland was the wake-up call his side needed to improve and see off the Australians.
‘Up in Scotland I think we were better for playing that game,’ said Morgan.
‘It certainly kicked us into touch a little bit and made us hone our skills coming into this game. It’s never nice losing but certainly we did take a lesson from it.’