Born-again Roy shows maturity to leave England calling the shots
Opener’s fifth ODI century gives hosts 2-0 series lead Marsh gives Australia hope with 131 but to no avail
England will seal this five-match Royal London series if they beat Australia at Trent Bridge on Tuesday afternoon as they won the second international on a windswept day by 38 runs.
Neither at the Oval nor in Cardiff has Australia’s batting been good enough to counter England’s varied attack, except for Shaun Marsh who scored a superlative 131 off 116 balls. Marsh exploited the inability of England’s pace bowlers to bowl the slower balls and cutters dictated by the pitch until Liam Plunkett came to the rescue with his offcutter.
If they are about to lose this one-day battle however, Australia are becoming ever better equipped to win the Ashes war next summer. Not always does the better pace attack win the series in England as is invariably the case in Australia. Still, England will find it alarming the Australians keep churning out pace bowlers quicker than the fastest of their own.
Having unveiled Billy Stanlake in the first international, he was replaced – owing to a left toe injury – by another fine prospect in Jhye Richardson, who touched 90mph and is only 21. Unrelated to Kane Richardson – who is not a slouch either – he is no mere speed merchant but a proper bowler to be added to the Australian arsenal of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Stanlake.
So Australia’s pace bowling, if raw, is still sharp: it is their batting which smacks of an “A” team. This is not solely due to the bans on David Warner and Steve Smith. Australia have lost 13 and won two of their last 15 internationals spread over the last two calendar years, suggesting their ODI batting has been more affected than their Test batting by the growth of T20. Shaun Marsh, their one senior Test batsman, alone found the right tempo in his lone hand, his fourth ODI century.
England’s batting, having been slack at the Oval, tightened up admirably to produce a near-perfect display, led by Jason Roy with his fifth ODI century. Australia have never chased down so many as 342, and the burden of geography was added to that of history when the pitch became more uneven as the game progressed.
Roy had not reached 50 since setting the record for an England ODI innings with his 180 at the start of last January’s series in Australia.
Back at the drawing-board, Roy has come up with a method against the leftarm spinner – previously his Achilles’ heel – that involves a lot less bottom hand and hitting across the line. Here he offdrove Ashton Agar and was content with singles to rotate the strike.
His whole innings radiated a newfound maturity, a control that Roy had never demonstrated before and a sug- gestion of restrained power that was wonderful for England’s supporters to watch a year before the World Cup – and Roy has not become too purist in that he could still let his bottom hand take over to club a couple of sixes.
He had one advantage in that it was only in the latter stages of England’s innings, after he had been dismissed, that Australia’s pace bowlers realised slower balls and cutters were the way to go as the ball began to grip. Initially the surface was slightly damp and refreshed by the drizzle that fell for much of the morning, causing two rain-breaks, so that the ball skidded on most drivably for Roy and Jonny Bairstow.
Another mark of Roy’s maturity showed in not playing a game of topdog with Bairstow but let him take the strike and lead. Bairstow, in a purple patch that few England batsmen have ever known – like Kevin Pietersen at the height of his powers, or Michael Vaughan in the year or two before he became captain, or David Gower – appears capable of hitting every ball to the boundary, though he dispatched only one-third of them.
It was a measure of how smooth a machine England’s batting has become that they recorded a 50 partnership for every one of their first five wickets – the first time it had been done in ODIs – even though their captain was absent.
After a back spasm, Eoin Morgan handed over to Jos Buttler so belatedly the toss was made only 20 minutes before the start; Morgan was replaced by Sam Billings, who shared a 50 stand with Buttler but yet again did not fully deliver.
Buttler, leading England for the fourth time, batted with a responsibility that had gone missing at the Oval and finished with his highest score as captain. He was patient when Agar and D’Arcy Short put the brake on with their left-arm spinners up to the 40th over, then took Jhye Richardson for 16 off three balls including two ramps for six in succession downwind.
In the field Buttler was not hit on the nose as his counterpart Tim Paine had been – although that did not stop Australia’s keeper taking an exceptional catch to his left shortly afterwards. Australia helped by omitting to mix up their right- and left-handed batsmen.
The tourists demoted Aaron Finch to no avail and began with three lefthanders, including Short on his ODI debut, which allowed England to get both off-spinners on early and Joe Root to ease the pressure on the five specialist bowlers. Australia began behind the required run-rate and in spite of Marsh’s stroke play on the ground where he has been Glamorgan’s overseas player, there they remained.