Ponting keeps clean sweep hopes alive
By Valkerie Baynes, 16 Sep 2009 Valkerie Baynes is a Roar Rookie
Ricky Ponting kept alive Australia’s hopes of a 7-0 whitewash of their one-day series against England with a captain’s knock that led his side to a four-wicket victory in the fifth match at Trent Bridge on Tuesday.
Ponting scored 126 off 109 balls, including three sixes and 14 fours, as Australia reached 6-302 with 10 balls to spare in reply to England’s total of 299 from their 50 overs.
He was well supported by deputy Michael Clarke, who reached 52 off 64.
Eoin Morgan’s maiden half century steered England to their best score of the series in a dead rubber after Australia clinched the series 4-0 at Lord’s on Saturday.
Mitchell Johnson brought up the winning runs with a six off Ryan Sidebottom to remain unbeaten on 18, while Cameron White was not out 24.
Ponting signalled his intentions early when he hit a huge six straight down the ground off the bowling of Sidebottom to move to 15.
He brought up his half century with a four off Dimitri Mascarenhas and after Clarke also reached the milestone, the skipper hit consecutive sixes off Adil Rashid.
Clarke fell a short time later pulling a Rashid delivery to Owais Shah at deep square leg.
Michael Hussey ended a frustrating day when he was caught by Sidebottom off Mascarenhas for just six.
When Callum Ferguson (17) fell lbw to Stuart Broad and Ponting’s stellar innings came to an end when he lofted Broad to Shah at long off, there were two new batsman at the crease with Australia needing to score at just over a run a ball.
But White and Johnson set about their task with determination to push Australia over the line.
The tourists rested Brett Lee, who claimed five wickets in the previous match, replacing him with fellow paceman Peter Siddle.
England brought in Mascarenhas for Luke Wright, who was hit on the toe on Monday while batting against a bowling machine set to mimic Lee’s inswinging yorkers which proved so effective last weekend.
Declared fit after being struck on the head by a ball from paceman Graham Onions in the nets shortly before the match, Andrew Strauss won a fifth straight toss.
The England captain reached 35 off 38 deliveries but he was trapped lbw by Nathan Hauritz.
Other England players to make starts were Ravi Bopara (18), Joe Denly (45), Matthew Prior (37) and Shah (31) but it was former Ireland batsman Morgan who starred for his adopted country.
Playing just his sixth one-day international for England, he smashed 58 off 41 balls, bringing up his 50 with a six off Nathan Bracken, the third time the batsman cleared the fence.
Morgan should have been out for 38 when he hit a Shane Watson delivery to deep square leg, where Hussey juggled the ball so many times before grassing the catch it was comical to all but the Australians.
There was some consolation for Watson five balls later when he had Mascarenhas (19) caught by Johnson for 19.
Broad contributed 22 off 20 deliveries before being run out by a direct hit from Ponting, firing the ball in from mid-off.
Morgan’s innings came to an end when he attempted a reverse sweep off Bracken and sent a top edge to Siddle at point.
Rashid (18) was run out by Tim Paine on the last ball of the innings, leaving Sidebottom unbeaten on three.
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The Crowd Says (13) | Page 1 of Comments
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Jameswm said | September 16th 2009 @ 11:38am | Report comment
The Aussies were chasing 300 and lost 4 late wickets, but still got there easily.
It all seems a bit odd. Maybe England have lost interest, but there are a lot of new players in this series who didn’t play in the Ashes.
You can tell that their fans have lost interest – no replies from English cricket fans to any related threads any more!
Michael C said | September 16th 2009 @ 1:07pm | Report comment
Yep, for all the great work of Ponting, and Clarke again doing his best as a minor partner (as per supporting White the other day),
they were still left with 2 new batsmen (White & Johnson) and more than a run a ball off the last 6 overs.
And they did it in a canter.
Cameron White batting with real assurance and making 24 off 15 without any hint of panic, That 4 fine off the pads was just gold ; and Johnson smacking the 6 to win.
Cameron White looks set to establish himself now……and perhaps should give away pseudo leggies and take up slow mediums in the G.Chappell/V.Richards mould??
Matt0931 said | September 16th 2009 @ 9:53pm | Report comment
It was a good game!
I think anyone who has been claiming one dayers have become boring should have watched that match, especially the last 20 overs of each innings.
Ponting gave a classic example of how a team should use the middle ‘boring’ overs to great effect scoring a lot of runs from the english spin/medium pace bowlers.
Mr Bingle put in a good performance but was silly to throw his wicket away like that – he should have carried on in the supporting role he was performing and left the big shots to the inform Ponting.
I do think though that our bowling attack looked rather weak without Lee in our side and I think the only chance out team has of winning the coming championship is if Lee stays fit and is in the team.
Speaking of ‘in the team’, surely it is time to send Mr Cricket home to play in the domestic league for a while to get his mojo back! He is obviously struggling for form and it’s painful watching someone with such talent struggle on the big stage. I say send him home, let him build confidence in the domestic league and then let him loose again later next year.
Perhaps Hughes could step in and take over the opening for Paine who could then slip down the order to 4 or 5.
Colin N said | September 17th 2009 @ 9:30am | Report comment
Fair play to the Aussies, they have played some excellent cricket, but I actually feel this England one day side have potential. It’s a young team, but players like Rashid and Morgan have stepped up to the plate. And, with Broad (averaging 27 in one day cricket) and Anderson (when fully fit) leading the bowling attack, this team could be a very good one day side.
Although, the series is currently standing at 5-0, most of the games have been fairly close.
Having said all that, it’s a credit to this Aussie side that they are in this position, and could well go one to become a great team in the one day format. The batting line-up is long and the bowling is effective. However this is a department that could be worked on.
Jameswm said | September 17th 2009 @ 10:19am | Report comment
Geez Colin – you say the Aussies “could well go one to become a great team in the one day format”. They’ve won the last 2-3 World Cups and haven’t lost a world cup game since, well have they lost one this century? Maybe one
I assume you mean this particular group though. I think Clarke has to go. He just battles to hit the ball off the square and scores too slowly for long periods. I also think we need a specialist opening batsman. Johnson’t one day bowling has to improve. Krejza needs to some into the group as a 2nd spinning option. We need an all rounder better than Hopes, though we do already have Johnson and Watson I guess (plus a keeper opening).
My team would be
Hughes
Haddin
Ponting
Watson
Ferguson
White
Johnson
Hauritz
Lee
Bracken
and say a batting all rounder. No one really springs to mind – Symonds would have been the obvious one! Buckleys of them dropping Clarke though and his bowling is underrated, so he’ll be the 11th there.. I guess that’s pretty much the current team, with Hughes in for Hussey and Haddin back, plus a fiddle in the batting order. I don’t mind opening with Watson and putting Haddin down to 6-7.
Colin N said | September 17th 2009 @ 10:41am | Report comment
“I assume you mean this particular group though”
Well obviously.
The test side have been number one for 14 years, but have dropped down and are nowhere near becoming a great side. Despite the changes, the one day team looks like it has a huge amount of potential.
The England rugby 2004 side weren’t great because they lost a lot of players, and were basically inept in comparison to the world cup winning squad.
Need I go on?
Jameswm said | September 17th 2009 @ 2:39pm | Report comment
I guess this squad has a few new faces. Cameron White has been thereabouts for a while. Ferguson is pretty new. I don’t think Johnson was at the last WC. Siddle certainly wasn’t.
We haven’t lost a lot of players though. Of the test retirees, Warne and Langer weren’t playing one-dayers, so we’ve lost Gilchrist, Haydos and McGrath, but it HAS been a couple of years now.
Some have also been tried and cast aside (Warner, Marsh)
Colin N said | September 17th 2009 @ 11:24pm | Report comment
Australia’s side in the Cricket World cup final:
Gilchrist
Hayden
Ponting
Symonds
Watson
Clarke
Hussey
Hogg
Bracken
Tait
McGrath
I count 6 players that aren’t playing against England in the current ODI series, over half the team.
Perhaps, it’s my time to use the phrase ‘geez’ James, you seem to take offence when I praise Australia, and debate anything about Australian cricket.
Brett McKay said | September 17th 2009 @ 3:07pm | Report comment
James, Johnson was at the last WC (I’m pretty sure), but was only just new to the squad and Tait for one was in front of him.
You’re right though, it’s a pretty good looking side coming together, and even if you add the likes of Hughes ang Haddin and Krezja into the mix, having a decent 18 or 20 in a ODI squad isn’t bad.
Watson and White are interesting though currently – no need to drop them, you wouldn’t want to drop them, but are we sure we’ve found their ideal spots yet?? I do like the idea of White switching to Greg Chappell meds though, full marks for that suggestion..
Michael C said | September 18th 2009 @ 6:31am | Report comment
Good to see Tim Paine achieve a break through innings,
he is real quality this kid, I’ve paid close attention to him down in Tassie for a couple of years (more, because I was following the fortunes of Travis Birt – - from Stratford in East Gippsland).
opening the batting and only let through (so far) 6 byes in 6 ODI matches…..Haddin wouldn’ve conceded 30 by now.
How quickly can we get Paine in the test team….he’s a very correct player and we can’t let the shorter forms of the game corrupt him too much just because some people like Brad Haddin (who ain’t the future).
Jameswm said | September 18th 2009 @ 8:05am | Report comment
Haddin’s a better batsman than Hussey!
In fact Haddin is a high quality test batsman, but I wish he’d bat with the attitude of a batsman, rather than a kepper who scores a few bonus runs. Johnson has worked this out too, and when he bats with the attitude of a batsman, he invariably does well. He can be vulnerable early though.
Johnson’s still not a great one day bowler and I think bowling is our weakness.
Paine has been steadily improving for 4-5 years now and has been on a lot of people’s radar. He’s 24, so he can come into the team in the next 1-2 years. Pretty handy backup though.
Did anyone hear the Aussies say yes we’ve been rotating and resting through this series, but in game 7 we’ll be playing what we think is our strongest team! Just what the opposition wants to hear at 6-0 down!
So Hopes gets dropped after 38 off 23 and 3 for 32 off 9! Not good enough son!
Brett McKay said | September 18th 2009 @ 8:38am | Report comment
I’m not quite so sure about that James, I know who I’d pick of the two to bat for my life, especially with mid-on and mid-off on the circle…
But your comment about Haddin needing to bat like a batsman is very apt.
Another great win this morning, and I’m also very impressed with Tim Paine. Who would have thought a 12 year old could handle international cricket so well, and so soon out of the Milo Have-a-go ranks!! All jokes aside, he looks the goods, and even hearing him post match, he seems to have a maturity well beyond (well, well beyond!) his very youthful looks.
Just on the bowling, I’ll ask a question again I think I first asked maybe twelve months ago – it’s all fine and good for Lee to be in the wickets again, but can we afford him to be going at 5-6 rpo in the process?
Jameswm said | September 18th 2009 @ 1:26pm | Report comment
I would say yes (in one-dayers), but not if Johnson is doing likewise.
And I never said anything about batting for your life! Haddin would give me a heart attack first anyway! It’s amazing that a cricketer can get to this level and still suffer from the old rush of blood.