Michael Clarke shines as Australia clinch series win
Australia sealed the seven-match One Day International series 4-1 against England after they overcame the visitors by 51 runs in the fifth match of the series at Brisbane.
Australia batted first after winning the toss and amassed 249 before they were dismissed in the 50th over. In reply, England batting was below par and the visitors were all out for 198 in 45.3 overs.
The start was relatively good for the Kangaroos but they kept on losing wickets at regular intervals which did not allow them to score freely.
The openers, Brad Haddin and Shane Watson got starts but they failed to capitalise. Watson was out after scoring 16 runs whereas Haddin scored 37 before he got out. Shaun Marsh and Cameron White also failed to build onto their starts and both were dismissed
after scoring 16 each.
The stand-in Australian captain, Michael Clarke did not miss out on the occasion as he scored his first half-century of the series.
Clarke received good support from David Hussey, who shared a 65-run partnership with his captain to take Aussies out of trouble. However, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120 (54) and Hussey (34) got out in a span of 12 runs and the hosts were in deep trouble.
Cameos from Steve Smith, Mitchell Johnson and John Hastings ensured that the home team batted for most of their overs. Smith remained unbeaten on 24 until he ran out of partners at the other end.
Nine Australian batsmen got into double figures but only the Australian captain managed to take his score past fifty. 16 was not a very lucky figure for the Kangaroos as four batsmen were dismissed for it.
The star of the English team was the youngster, Chris Woakes. He took six wickets for just 45 runs in 10 overs.
In reply, England batsmen failed to get going as the Australian pace ace Brett http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Lee-c72382 was on fire in his first spell. England lost their top three including batsmen for just 22 runs on the board.
The innings was stabilised by Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen as both shared a 73-run partnership. However, Pietersen and Bell failed to capitalise on their starts and got out for 40 and 36 respectively.
The lower middle order could not put up a fight and the team lost 8 batsmen for just 128 runs.
James Anderson and Steve Finn offered some resistance and took their team’s total closer to 200. Finn scored 35 before getting out while Anderson remained unbeaten on 20.
Shane http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Watson-c96326 took three wickets whereas Lee, Doug Bollinger and John Hastings grabbed two wickets each.
Even though the match was won by Australia, Woakes was named Man-of-the-Match for his splendid spell of bowling.
The match was also a fund-raiser for the flood victims in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 and 6 million Australian dollars were raised for the cause.
Both teams will now face each other on 2 February, 2011 at Sydney.
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