STOKES SENDS AUSSIES CRASHING
Aussies dumped out and their skipper was right — this team is really predictable ...they win a lot
STEVE SMITH might not have realised it when he called England’s one- day cricket ‘predictable’ on the eve of this game, but there can be little quibbling now.
A brilliant counter-attacking hundred from Ben Stokes, who put on 159 with Eoin Morgan, not only condemned Smith’s Australians to an early flight home from the Champions Trophy, it completed England’s 11th victory out of 12.
Two more wins, starting with the semifinal in Cardiff on Wednesday against either Pakistan or Sri Lanka, and Morgan’s men can celebrate their first global 50-over trophy. Their predictability may yet become the envy of the world.
For the time being, England – whose place in the last four was already assured – should just enjoy the frisson of eliminating Australia in an Ashes year. And if bad weather meant their win had to be confirmed by the DLS charts, they were a comfortable 40 runs ahead of the rate.
To compound Smith’s misery, it all meant a place in the last four for Bangladesh, who would have been knocked out by Australia on Monday had rain at The Oval held off for four more overs. On Friday, the Bangladeshis upset New Zealand. This is turning into quite a tournament.
And this was quite a match. When a first shower stopped play after six overs of their reply, England were teetering at 35 for three, including a second-ball dismissal for the out-of-form Jason Roy.
But a 40-minute delay allowed them to gather their thoughts. Morgan, who had been dropped down the leg side on 12 by wicketkeeper Matthew Wade before the break, drove Mitchell Starc’s first two balls through the off side, and England never looked back. As the boundaries flowed, a crowd of 24,227 – a record for a one-day international at Edgbaston – found its voice. It was the scenario Australia had dreaded. They have played England here three times in this competition, and lost the lot.
So robust was the riposte that Morgan and Stokes brought up the 100 inside 15 overs, brisk even by their standards. Stokes pulled Starc for a flat six to bring up a 39-ball half-century, but the shot of the day was Morgan’s smear over midwicket off an incredulous Josh Hazlewood – one of five sixes for the England captain.
Morgan was eventually run out for 87 when he was caught ball-watching, but Jos Buttler was unfettered from the start, and Stokes was soon acknowledging his second one-day hundred of the summer. Right now, he rivals India’s Virat Kohli for box-office appeal.
‘His potential is through the roof,’ said Morgan. ‘The IPL auction proved that. He’s always looking to influence the
game, and his batting was exceptional.’ Smith, one of Stokes’s Rising Pune Supergiant team- mates, could only agree: ‘He’s a fantastic player and he’s getting better and better.’ The Austral ia n innings was dominated by three batsmen and two bowlers. Aaron Finch, Smith and Travis Head all made half-centuries, while Mark Wood and Adil Rashid bowled superbly to claim four wickets apiece. The total was 277 for nine – reasonable on a grey day in the Midlands, but a disappointment from 136 for one in the 23rd over. The galloping Wood gets better by the game. He confirmed his love of a prize scalp by dismissing David Warner caught behind for 21, then persuading Smith to chip to mid-off with the first ball of his second spell. Australia’s captain departed with an accusing glare at the surface; it should have been saved for the dressingroom mirror. For Wood, figures of four for 33 were a career-best, and a pointed pre- Ashes statement. He can be central to England’s hopes.
For Rashid, redemption has come with gratifying haste after he was dropped for the tournament opener against Bangladesh.
He bowled beautifully against New Zealand, and here made liberal use of his googly to collect four for 41, figures he has bettered only against Ireland last month. On this evidence Rashid may yet play more of a role in the Ashes than anyone expected.
While he and Wood were operating together towards the end of the innings in thrilling tandem there was barely a run to be had. The Australians lost five for 15 in 26 deliver- ies, a sequence that began with an astonishing catch by Roy to dismiss Glenn Maxwell.
Maxwell pulled Wood towards deep midwicket, where Roy clung on, threw the ball in the air as he lost his balance, then nonchalantly stepped back on to the field of play to complete the job.
Once, it would have counted as a miracle. Now, it feels like part and parcel of the game, like rain in Birmingham. But make no mistake: the skill required is breathtaking.
Head squeezed 23 out of the last wicket, leaving Wood and Rashid with a combined eight for 74, and England’s four other bowlers with one for 195.
Jake Ball and Stokes were both below their best, while Plunkett for once failed to chip in. But Stokes rarely has a quiet game these days, and Morgan – practising what he has spent the past two years preaching – did not hold back. It will take quite a performance to stop England now.