Cricket: Australia set England a target of 277 in 5th Natwest ODI
Australia won the toss and elected to bat first. So once again England will have to chase down a score set by Aussie batsmen. Australia started off with a steady start. Shane Watson scored back to back boundaries to put pressure on James Anderson, but then James came back strong with a zipping short ball. From the sound of it, it looked out but the umpire turned the appeal down.
Bresnan and Anderson bowled with good line and length which pushed the Aussie openers to take a cautious approach. Anderson looked more threatening with his seaming good length deliveries, but it was Stuart Broad who had the first break for England with the score at 27. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Watson-c96326’s pull shot selection did not pay off and Anderson took an easy catch at mid on. Ponting and Paine kept the score board ticking with a gingerly approach. Once again, when the batsmen felt the need to accelerate the run rate, Stuart Broad got the prized wicket of Ricky Ponting, who had scored a magnificent 92 in the last match. This time around Ponting could only manage 15 runs after which he attempted a pull shot, which was lobbed into the hands of wicket keeper Kieswetter.
Australia’s steady approach continued as they posted a moderate score of 74/2 at the end of 20th over. Broad’s short deliveries continued to cause problems for Australian batsmen. Paine held the innings together with a steady 50 off 79 balls. But Australia kept losing wickets whenever they tried to accelerate the run rate.
Cameron White lost patience and attempted a big shot off Sawann’s second ball, his shot failed to travel the distance and fell in the hands of Yardy who came in from the long off boundary to take the catch. Paine also failed to hold his ground as he opted to reverse sweep a Sawann delivery and got bowled. The Aussies found it difficult to tackle Sawann’s clever bowling and soon found themselves in a bit of trouble with 4 wickets down for 106 runs in the 29th over.
Mr. Cricket Hussey and youngster Shaun Marsh steadied the boat while rotating the strike. By now Australia had revised their target and was hoping to set a target of around 220. Shaun Marsh, whom http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Geoffrey-Boycott-c58776 called “Mr. Cricketer Junior”, supported his senior partner Hussey. Australians opted for a third power play and both players started accelerating the run rate in the 39th over. A run a ball partnership at that time was starting to look threatening with both players settling into their respective roles. The run rate of 3.5 was pushed up to 4.5 at the end of 42nd over. This partnership provided life to Australia who was now fancying setting a target of around 250.
The English Captain made a daring decision by bringing in Swann for the 3rd power play, but this time around the momentum had changed, Australians handled Swann very convincingly. Andrew Strauss was now seen adjusting his field selection. Shaun Mash reached his 7th ODI fifty in just 45 balls.
Shaun Mash started swinging his bat for some big hits and scored his 1000 runs with a classic six. The partnership had already done the damage to the English cause, and was growing in confidence. A rush of blood and inexperience forced Shaun Mash to attempt a big stroke against Swann. He tried playing inside out over deep cover but Morgan ran along from long off to take a very good catch. Shaun Mash had done his job and given Australian some kind of platform for the last five overs. He scored 59 runs at a strike run rate of 118.
The 5th wicket partnership between Shaun Mash and Hussey lasted 107 runs. Hussey along with Smith continued to push England under pressure. England had no answers for some classic hitting by Mr. Cricket. Hussey had all the shots in the book and made good use of them. English bowlers failed to bother free flowing Hussey. Smith impressed by his partner also attempted a long shot but fell short. Broad picked up Smith’s wicket.
Mike Hussey also attempting a big shot got out in the same fashion as Smith. Mike had played an awesome innings for his country, scoring a crucial 79 runs at a run rate of 131.66. Mike Hussey and Shaun Mash partnership did the main damage.
It was a good turn around by Australia. Some good batting by the middle order in the final overs allowed them to post a target of 277 which at one time looked unattainable.
England has a strong batting line up and believes that they can get this target. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 posted a score of 290 in the 4th ODI which England failed to chase. England will have to take an aggressive approach against Australian bowlers if they want to chase the target down.
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