Nervous England concede bonus point to Australia

Carlton Mid Tri-series, Australia                                                                               Date: 16/01/2015   
Game 1

Australia Vs England at Sydney Cricket ground

English hopes, strengthened by Ian Bell’s superb “daddy” hundred in the team’s second practice match, were once again proved to be standing on shaky grounds. It took Mitchell Stark just one delivery to pin Ian Bell to the crease, hit him flush in front of the stumps with a lovely delivery that swung in and eluded Bell’s prod. Similar fate awaited England’s new number 3, James Taylor. The only difference being the slight shade of doubt about the ball’s path culminating at the leg stump. Nevertheless it put the fact that England’s tortures in the shorter format of the game have not ended, beyond any reason for doubt. 2 wickets in the first three balls without a run put on the board was enough to dash hopes of any early momentum. Yet as he preached a couple of days ago, England’s other opening batsman, Moeen Ali launched an offensive from the other end. A couple of wristy pickups on the leg side made his intentions clear and brought some much needed energy to England’s charge. Meanwhile after labouring through 14 deliveries, Joe Root chose to chase a slightly wider delivery from Pat Cummins that ended in Shane Watson’s lap in the first slip. England 12/3 in the fourth over.

Enter Captain Morgan with an unproductive 2014 surely playing at the back of his mind. He started cautiously scoring his first run off the tenth delivery he faced. By that time Moeen Ali had scored 22 off 19 and was looking ominous in his intent and timing of his strokes. However, in the ninth over, he ended up depositing the ball safely in the palms of Glenn Maxwell who was stationed at deep extra cover and had somehow managed to cloak himself invisible. The fact that Maxwell didn’t have to move more than a couple of steps to take that catch showed poor awareness of field placing and state of the match from Moeen. From 33/4 consolidation was always going to be England’s first priority. With Bopara for company Eoin Morgan steadied the innings with a couple of well-timed boundaries and safely took his team to first drinks without further damage.

After resumption England lost Bopara in the first over itself to Xavier Doherty. From then to the second drinks break England didn’t lose another wicket and Morgan, with Jos Buttler for company this time, took the score to 135/5 at the end of the 34^th over. As it happens so many times in cricket, England lost Buttler immediately after the drinks. He had put on 67 with Morgan and gave some meat to the emaciated English total. Yet merely survival would not have served the purpose for Morgan and England. Morgan was on 58 off 92 deliveries when he lost Buttler in the 35^th over. In the next 44 deliveries he faced he scored 63 runs before perishing in the 48^th over trying to clear Maxwell at deep midwicket off Mitchell Starc’s bowling. That was England’s 9^th wicket down and Steven Finn’s dismissal on the very next ball aptly summed up the state of English innings on the SCG today. England finished at 234 with the help of Morgan’s 121 off 136 deliveries. Other contributions of any significance were from Jos Buttler (28 off 60) and Moeen Ali (22 off 21). Extras contributed 20 to the eventual scoreline. Mitchell Starc took 4 for 42 off his 8.5 overs and James Faulkner took 3 for 47 off his quota of 10. Cummins, Maxwell and Doherty contributed one wicket each.

Australia started their reply with an eye on the bonus point. The aggressive pair of Finch and Warner was starting to open up when Finch fell to Woakes trying to punch the ball on the offside and ended up chopping it on the stumps. He couldn’t make much use of the reprieve given to him by Steven Finn off his own bowling in the previous over. Shane Watson started positively but once again was guilty of throwing away a promising start which has become a hallmark of his 10 years as an international cricketer. Smith Joined Warner who completed his fifty off 48 deliveries. By the time Australia reached 100 in the 20^th over the English attack of Broad, Woakes, Finn, Jordan and Moeen Ali had not posed any problems to the Australian batsmen. The question remained whether England could prevent Australia from earning the bonus point or not. David Warner duly completed another pugnacious hundred, his 4^th in international cricket since December. Smith fell to Ali and Goerge Bailey was extremely tentative throughout his 25 ball stay which gave England hope of taking atleast a bonus point from the game. Warner and Haddin went on offensive and though both of them and Maxwell fell in the pursuit of the bonus point, Faulkner took them home in the 40^th over. Warner scored his 127 runs off just 115 balls. Though Woakes ended up with 4 wickets, none of the English bowlers bowled any particularly threatening spell, something England management would like to work upon if they wish to mount a serious challenge to the WC next month.