England v Australia 5th ODI at Old Trafford

England v Australia 5th ODI at Old Trafford June 25th

Neil Whitaker reports

A RECORD breaking ninth wicket stand for England against Australia of 71  between Jos Buttler and Adil Rashid saw England to 5-0 whitewash in this Royal London one-day series at Emirates Old Trafford.

When they came together in the 30th over England were  looking at defeat and had just lost two wickets in two balls and when their partnership was broken England were 11 short of victory with four overs left.  

It was fitting that Buttler should hit the winning runs because he showed a different side to his batting.  It was not the kind of innings that we have become accustomed to see in this series but it was the most valuable.  As in any innings he had a sense of fortune.

He reached his sixth one day century and his second against Australia with. A straight six off Marcus Stoinis. Which just about convinced the England fans that victory would be theirs.  It was also  Buttler’s slowest one day century.

Buttler said: “It was a great feeling hitting the winning runs and to win. A game when you don’t deserve to.  Me and Rashid had so much time to knock the runs off.  We wanted to get it  to a run a ball from the last 10 overs.” 

England skipper Eoin Morgan said: “When he plays like that he creates a lot of belief in the dressing room.”

Early in his innings when he was beaten by the flight of Ashton Agar and went down the wicket to him  but somehow he got an inside edge which beat Tim Paine and the ball ran to the boundary.

Buttler opened the face off his bat  and ran Kane Richardson to the third man boundary to bring up his fifty from 74 balls.   He survived a run out attempt when he clipped Billy  Stanlake off his legs for a couple to the victory target to less than 50.

He drilled Richardson to the long off boundary to bring up the fifty partnership with Rashid for the ninth wicket.

With 11 runs needed Australian skipper Paine did his best to keep Buttler off strike but they could not breach the defences of last man Jake Ball. Paine said : “Buttler is a very good player, I think he is the best white ball wicket keeper batsman around. He was outstanding.  Hopefully we can learn from him tonight  when we ask how he does it.”

He added: “It’s really disappointing to lose after we had been in a good position to win but we didn’t put them under enough pressure.  We didn’t bowl enough good balls to Rashid and Buttler when the were just starting. But apart from that I thought our bowlers were outstanding. And they weren’t to blame for the defeat today.  We haven’t been able to put a full game together at any stage in this competition. We have showed in glimpses today that there is real talent in our team with both bat and ball.

Buttler added: “Ball was very restrained because he kept wanting to go down the wicket and smash the ball.”

Australia just didn’t bat their 50 overs but they were dismissed so quickly that they only had a 10 minute break before they out fielding. With England needing 206 to win Australia struck in the first over and opened with spinner Agar. Jason Roy danced down the wicket to the left arm spinner and was bowled with only two on the board.  Jonny Bairstow chopped on to Billy Stanlake in the sixth over and three balls later Joe Root tried to force a lifting ball from Stanlake through the offside but edged it to Shaun Marsh at slip.

Stanlake got his third wicket in his next over when he rapped Morgan on his pads and the cannoned into his stumps.

Alex Hales chased a wide ball from Richardson and top edged it to Paine.  Stoinis squared Moeen Ali up and took the shoulder of his bat and the ball flew to Nathan Lyon  at backward point.

Left arm wrist spinner D’Arcy Short came into the attack in the 29th over and his first ball was short and Sam Curran  pulled his first six in ODI cricket but there was to be no more today, he wafted at a wide from Richardson in the next over and edged it to Paine.

Liam Plunkett was another who chased a wide ball, edged it to Paine and put Richardson on a hattrick. At this point Australia were favourites to win 

After winning the toss got the fifth time in this five match series it looked odds on for an easy England victory were they dismissed Australia for 205.  Moeen Ali took four wickets for 46 his best ODI figures  and Adil Rashid became the highest spinner wicket taker in a Bilateral series.

But at 11.15 it was different story.  After four overs Aaron Finch and Travis Head had reached 40 and threatening to run amok Morgan brought Root into the attack to stem the runs but it failed, his first over cost him 14 runs.  There was no hint of the trouble that the Aussies would find themselves in  and looked like they would set England a testing chase. On 20 Finch clipped Ball off his legs but fell inches short off Curran at short fine leg.

Then Moeen Ali sprang into action he replaced Root at the James Anderson end and he struck with his third ball.  Finch tried to pull him and the ball skided past his bat and knocked his off stump out of the ground.  Australia then went to lose five wickets  for 40 runs in eight overs.  Two balls  after Finch’s dismissal Stoinis top edged a sweep off Moeen Ali to Ball at short fine leg. 

Moeen Ali  got his third wicket when he turned one past Marsh’s bat but he lifted his foot and was stumped by Buttler.   In Moeen Ali’s next over Paine pushed him out to short mid wicket and set off for a single.  Buttler raced from behind the stumps collected the ball and threw the stumps down at the bowlers end with Paine a yard short. 

Buttler added: “ When I perform like that in one area of my game it giuves me confidence in other aspects of my game.”

After looking in control and reaching his fifty Head gently chipped Plunkett to Morgan at short mid wicket.

Alex Carey batted well and looked in a confident mood as he and Short added 59 in 10 overs but he got a feather touch to Sam Curran’s first ball back in the attack.  Two balls later Agar shouldered arms and the rocketed into his off stump.

With 22 overs to bat Australia could not afford to give another wicket away they had to make England fight for their remaining wickets.  Richardson launched Rashid over long on for a six.  He turned the next ball off his legs to short fine leg, Short at the non strikers end called Richardson thorough for a single but sent him back.  Unfortunately Richardson was inches short off his ground.

Rashid got into the record books when Lyon tried to pull a short ball from him and was leg before.  After he started to walk, Lyon decided to review it but wasn’t reprieved.

With Short already on his highest score of the series and three short off his half century Stanlake missed  a short ball from Moeen Ali and was bowled.

England made three changes from Durham resting David Willey, Craig Overton and Mark Wood and they brought in Curran, Plunkett and Ball.  Australia made two changes Short replaced Michael Neser and xRichardson replaced his namesake Jhye.

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