England cracks emerge as pace attack falters
Only Plunkett excels as Buttler’s men do enough Marsh’s century gives Australia renewed hope
It was not quite such a comprehensive victory as the 38-run margin suggested. England are 2-0 up going into the third one-day international against Australia at Trent Bridge tomorrow, but again their pace bowling creaked alarmingly until Liam Plunkett came to the rescue.
England’s batting had been outstanding as they rattled up a higher total than Australia have ever chased down. Jason Roy’s wonderfully controlled century – no wonder he called it the favourite of his five for England – was consummated by Jos Buttler at his best as a finisher, ramping two consecutive sixes downwind. Yet Australia, for all the weakness of their top-order batting, were still on course when Shaun Marsh was going like a train.
“We hit gaps well, ran well, hit the pockets well,” said Buttler, who stood in as captain when Eoin Morgan had a back spasm just before the toss. “In a perfect world we probably could have got 20 or 30 more as well. It shows the power of the side, scoring 340 knowing we could have got a few more. It will get smarter with more games under people’s belts and more maturity, the boys getting a bit older. And that experience is vital.”
So it boiled down to Australia needing 10 runs per over – and they got more when Mark Wood’s last two overs went for 13 and 15. He experiments with slower balls in the nets and he has to start bowling them in the middle, especially on a surface where the ball grips, if he is to retain his place. Trying to bowl ever faster was not the answer, as Marsh pulled and off-drove sixes.
“With our fielding we could have been a bit sharper, we missed a few fumbles,” Buttler added. Captains always have to understate their side’s mistakes for public consumption, and the fact was that too many England fielders buckled under the pressure imposed by Marsh in his 131 – only his fourth ODI century.
Moeen Ali, running back from point, dropped a skyer offered by Tim Paine, which was forgivable as the wind was blustery. Plunkett and Alex Hales missed straightforward stops while Wood, looking into the sun at deep square, did not see a ball that went past him.
It could have got ugly –
“In this day and age, 10 an over is very achievable,” as Buttler said – if one other batsman in Australia’s top five had contributed, instead of leaving it to Marsh.
Buttler did not have a perfect game as stand-in – he placed his short fine leg too square so that ordinary leg glances went for four, David Willey and Plunkett conceding two such boundaries in their opening over – but he got his bowling right. He used pace bowlers from the River Taff end, and let Moeen and Adil Rashid operate from the opposite end so the Australians had to hit them into the wind, to fatal effect in the cases of Glenn Maxwell and Andrew Tye. Rashid, expensive not least because most of the fielding mistakes were off him, still took three wickets to justify Buttler’s faith in keeping him mainly for the death. His third was his 100th in ODIS, making him only the second England spinner to reach the landmark.
But one pace bowler had to bowl at the death from the Taff end. Wood was too expensive; Willey is not trusted much once the ball has stopped swinging; but Plunkett stood up. Not with quick balls into the ribs, which used to be his strength, but with an off-cutter he developed in the IPL. Marsh was through his pullshot far too soon when Plunkett produced his off-cutter to seal the game – and Australia’s 13th defeat in their past 15 completed ODIS. Second ODI