Australia ensure respectable finish to ODIs against England
Australia have given their ODI series against England some respectability after wrapping up a 42 run victory in the final match.
While England had sealed the series after winning the opening three matches, Australia have now ensured they’ll have at least some momentum heading into the Ashes at the end of the year with two winning performances at The Oval and at Lord’s.
Australia had set a total of 277 for England to chase in the final match of the series, with Michael Hussey’s 79 from 60 balls and Shaun Marsh’s 59 from 50 ensuring the visitors went on to set a respectable total after the top order failed to ignite, with Shane http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Watson-c96326 (14) and Ricky Ponting (15) becoming the first two of Stuart Broad’s four victims for the day, and wicketkeeper-batsman Tim Paine soaking up 90 deliveries for his 54 runs.
Indeed, England must have been quietly confident of restricting the Aussies to a manageable total when they had the tourists floundering at an unhealthy 4-106 in the 30th over before Marsh (who replaced the injured Michael http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120 for the match) and Hussey batted Ponting’s side out of trouble.
Broad eventually added Hussey’s wicket to his collection as he finished with figures of 4-64 and was well supported by Graeme Swann’s 3-32, but there can be no doubt England were left with the prospect of chasing down a much higher total than they would have expected 20 overs earlier.
After setting a competitive total for the home side to chase, it was Shaun Tait who made the early breakthroughs for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746, as he rattled Strauss’ stumps in the fifth over (the England captain out for six) and followed that up by dismissing new batsman Michael Yardy – sent in at number three for the injured Kevin Pietersen – in the same manner just a couple of balls later before he’d had a chance to trouble the scoreboard.
When Ryan Harris, fresh from a five-wicket haul in the previous match of the series, induced Kieswetter to edge the ball to Hussey in the eighth over to leave England struggling at 3-44, Australia were looking the better of the two sides.
While the reliable Paul Collingwood attempted to steady the England ship, he gained little support from Eoin Morgan (nine) and Pietersen (duck) as James Hopes and Steven Smith chipped in with wickets for Australia, and Strauss’ side slumped to 5-73 in the 17th over.
While Luke Wright (21) provided the Twenty20 captain with some support as Collingwood passed his half century, when he was caught attempting to slog sweep Smith to the boundary, the match was Australia’s to lose.
Tim Bresnan’s 34-run charge provided England with some hope of salvaging an improbable victory, but some vintage fielding by Ponting as he threw down the stumps to run the 25-year-old out extinguished his charge.
Two balls later, Tait heard the satisfying clatter of the stumps off his bowling for the third time in the match, this time taking the big wicket of Collingwood with the batsman just five runs shy of his century.
From there, wrapping up the tail was almost a formality for the Aussies as Swann’s bold attempt to help snatch an England win came to an end when the spinner became Tait’s fourth wicket of the day (the paceman finished with figures of 4-48), as he was caught at mid-off for 33, leaving his side 42 runs short of victory.
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