England v Australia 3rd ODI at chester-le-Street September 24th

Neil Whitaker reports

CAPTAIN Harry Brook hit his first ODI hundred as England beat Australia by 46 runs DLS to keep the  Metro Bank ODI series alive with two matches to play.

He said: “I am relieved, it’s just nice to get some runs, but today I managed to play the innings that I wanted to.  All season I’ve been playing stop/start cricket but now I feel that I am in a good place.  The longer I bat the better it gets.  I just try to play the ball as late as possible and keep my head as still as possible.”

When he came to the crease in the third over England were struggling on 11 for two after losing both openers.  Brook joined Will Jacks and the pair added  156 in 25 overs as they made batting look easy.

Brook   steered  Mitchell Starc past stumper Alex Carey to the third man boundary to bring up his  hundred up from 88 balls with 12 fours and two sixes. Early in his innings he went down the pitch to Josh Hazlewood and hammered him to the cover boundary. He beautifully drove Aarron  Hardie to the extra cover boundary and in the next over from Glenn Maxwell,  Brook drove him off his back foot to the cover boundary.

Brook and Jacks targeted the first two balls of an over and when they did they’d get 12 an over.  In one Starc over they got 19.  Jacks belted Matty Short’s first ball  over the long-off boundary for a six then he nudged Short for a couple off his legs to bring up his fourth ODI 50 and his first as captain from 54 balls.

Jacks hit Cameron  Green through the line to the long-off boundary.  He flicked Starc off his legs to bring up his fourth ODI 50 from 10 matches with six fours.  As he and Brook  made batting look easy he launched Sean Abbott over the mid-wicket boundary for another six.

Brook scooped Abbott fine for another boundary, two balls later he pulled Abbott to the mid-wicket boundary.  Their partnership was broken when Jacks top edged a  cut  short ball from Green to Abbott on the third man boundary.

Brook added: “I think Jacks is a good player of pace and we just built a partnership.”

Jamie Smith pulled a bouncer from  Green with Maxwell running round the square leg boundary and took the catch. Liam Livingstone danced down the pitch to Hardie and blasted him for a six over long-on to get off the mark.  He had a lucky escape when he pulled Green over fine leg with Labuschagne running round the boundary to flick the ball back into play and then catch the ball but he got one of Australia’s 12th man in his eyeline and Labuschagne gave him the stare. 

Carey followed his 71 at Headingley with  77 and saw Australia to 304 for seven in their 50 overs.  When he came into bat Australia had lost two wickets for one run in four balls, Green who got the Australian innings moving and the dangerous Labuschagne.  Green greeted Adil Rashid introduction to the attack by pulling his first ball to the mid-wicket boundary. When Jacks came  into the attack Green hit his first ball straight for a one bounce four. Green backed away and drilled Rashid ton the cover boundary as he and Smith started to accelerate.

After hitting 32 in  the first Metro Bank ODI at Trent Bridge and  failing to reach double figures at Headingley, Stephen  Smith looked to have found some form hitting 60.

Their  partnership was broken when Green went down the pitch to Jacob Bethell and smashed him to Jacks at a straight mid-on.  They added 84 for the third wicket in 16 overs. In the next over Australia lost another wicket when Labuschange tried to scoop Jacks but the ball hit the toe end of his bat then his helmet and went over stumper Smith’s head who ran and dived to take the catch.

Australia head coach Andrew McDonald said: “I think Carey has done a incredible job. The way he’s batting is quite impressive.

Smith turned Jacks off his legs to the square leg boundary to bring up his 34th ODI 50 from 71 balls with five fours.  He pulled Joffa Archer off his legs and looked to be at least four if not a six but he reckoned without Carse who made 10 yards on the square leg boundary and dived forward and took the catch.  Smith couldn’t believe it and stood in the middle of the pitch.

Carey was busy from the moment he came in and found runs easy to comeby while the others had found batting  hard. England thought they had Carey on 25 when they went up for a leg before appeal and reviewed it when it was turned down.  But the replay showed it to be missing.

He beautifully pulled Brydon Carse to the square leg boundary, later he glanced Carse  off his hips for another boundary.


If Green got Australia’s innings moving it was Hardie who made the dream of 300 possible.  In the last eight  overs of Australia’s innings they added 78. He was always taking the attack to England’s bowlers. He pulled a short ball from Archer for a big six over the mid-wicket boundary as 17 came off that Archer over.  In the next over he drilled Potts to extra cover boundary as the ball  went through Duckett at mid-off and he pulled the next ball to the fine leg boundary.  He blasted Archer for a huge six over the long-on boundary.  

His partnership with  Carey ended when Carey was guilty of ball watching when he turned Potts off his legs to Rashid at square leg.  Hardie had set off like a train before he saw that  Carey  hadn’t moved and was easily run out.

McDonald added: “Hardie came into the team late and he's good at death batting and got us to a score we could defend.”

Before Green’s knock   it looked like Australia would rely on Maxwell to get them to 300 and he was up for the task.  He bludgeoned Carse to the mid-wicket boundary.  He smashed Livingstone’s first to deliveries ro the long-on boundary in truth they dreadful deliveries but Livingstone had the mast laugh.  Maxwell smashed a short wide delivery to Carse at mid-off, the Australian was disgusted with the shot that he just stood in the middle of the pitch. With  Carey, Maxwell  added 54 in seven overs.

For the third match running England captain  Brook won the toss and put Australia into bat. England made one change from Saturday’s match Archer replaced Olly Stone, for Australia  Green and  Abbott came in for Travis Head due to soreness and Adam Zamp for sickness.

Two balls after Short had pulled Archer and saw it sail over Rashid’s head at fine leg he repeated the shot but this time he found Rashid.

After pulling Carse for a six Mitch Marsh got into an awful mess playing a forward defensive shot and edged him to Smith.  He got into such a mess that he was walking before umpire Kumar Dharmasena’s finger was up.

Rain drove the players off the field at 7.40 and play was abandoned at 8.12.

On Brook, McDonald said: “Full credit to  Brook today. He’s an impressive player and he’s going to have a long career for England. He’s going to give us some headaches over the journey. The way he played, the way he led today.., sometimes you’ve got to take your hat off to the opposition. This is one of those moments.

The conditions for our batting unit were incredibly difficult so to post that total was equally impressive.… but the way Brook  iced that game was impressive.”

SCORECARD