Mighty Morgan Captain’s half-century helps topple the Aussies
Callow Australia beaten with six overs to spare Spin pair Moeen and Rashid take key wickets
Such a strange atmosphere. So lukewarm, so mild. Not perhaps since the 1979 World Cup, when Australia sent a second XI because of Kerry Packer, has a cricket match between England and Australia in this country been so short of traditional rivalry and ribaldry.
England did their best to inject excitement, by losing three quick wickets when set to score 215 and then suffering a late spasm of poor shot-selection, before they won with three wickets and six overs in hand, to go 1-0 up with four to play in this Royal London series. Overall, though, it was as if the Australians had never tampered with the ball in South Africa, so subdued was the occasion until England manufactured a semi-climax by batting almost as poorly as Australia.
Only Australia captain Tim Paine and the easy-going Shaun Marsh were members of their Ashes-winning team last winter or that scandal-ridden party in South Africa, so there was no Aussie for the Oval crowd to hate or bait.
Paine has been appointed on the same lines as an old-time England amateur captain: not worth his place (in the Test team yes, in white-ball formats no) but an awfully nice chap and a decent, diplomatic leader in a time of crisis.
Besides, neither Paine nor Marsh batted long enough to raise any ire as Australia collapsed irreparably against England’s spinners. Against Scotland, England’s pace bowlers had been exposed: Eoin Morgan got round this problem, rather than solved it, by bringing on his two spinners early and breaking the back of Australia’s batting, leaving England’s pace bowlers to mop up their lengthy tail when steadiness was sufficient.
It was Australia’s batting rather than their still-vibrant bowling which smacked of their second XI. With David Warner and Steve Smith serving their one-year bans, their replacements lacked bristling intent as well as skill.
Collectively, apart from Glenn Maxwell, Australia’s batsmen were rather slow of mind and feet against Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid, omitting to place the ball into gaps and rotate the strike. One-day internationals are more subtle than the Big Bash.
One major improvement by England’s pace bowlers was that they took an early wicket, unlike against Scotland, which made life easier for Moeen when he bowled the ninth over. For a couple of overs David Willey made the new ball swing, which was enough to have the lefthanded Travis Head caught at first slip driving. Thereafter England’s spinners controlled the match, and either could have been chosen as the man of it.
Moeen, bowling straight through from the pavilion end with a long leg-side boundary, turned ball and screw until Maxwell took his last over for 14: Moeen’s off-break hit the top of Marsh’s off stump, while Aaron Finch and Paine were guilty of indiscretions. Adil Rashid, from the Vauxhall end, had a short legside boundary yet did not concede a six or a four until his ninth over by concentrating on his leg-break rather than variations.
Together, in taking five wickets for 79, Moeen and Rashid gave England’s supporters much cause to hope that when the World Cup pitches are tiring towards the end of the tournament next summer, England will still be a force, which they were not at the climax of the last Champions Trophy.
By next summer, indeed, spin might be the stronger part of England’s bowling if Liam Plunkett and Mark Wood do not recover the edge of pace they had.
Billy Stanlake clocked 90mph in his first over, jagging back between Jason Roy’s pad and bat as it came down across the line. Paine used Stanlake in spells of no more than three overs to keep him sharp. England will hope that before the next Ashes series of 2019, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins do not so improve their batting that Australia can fit in Stanlake – as well as Josh Hazlewood – to supply highoctane bursts.
England first wobbled when Alex Hales was flummoxed by a full ball and Jonny Bairstow, in purple form,
middled a pull that sped to the longest boundary: no fourth ODI century in a row.
England are shorn of two allrounders in Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes, so at 38 for three they needed a partnership. Morgan and Joe Root combined to add 115, with the white-ball captain taking the lead and manoeuvring the spinners while Root batted like the redball captain.
Morgan was not at fault when he bottom-edged a cut and was caught behind for his highest ODI score since the Champions Trophy. Jos Buttler was: he could have done with playing himself in after resting against Scotland, and with England wanting less than three runs an over. When Root nibbled at a good ball by Stanlake and followed Buttler, England still had to find 52 runs from their last four wickets.
Moeen, in trying to hook a six to the longest boundary when the run-rate was so undemanding, was as gung-ho as Buttler, but the shot did not cost him the man-of-thematch award. Willey passed his test of character with flying colours, making his highest score for England and finishing with the flourish of a straight six.