Australia will look to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the one day international series against England when the two teams meet in Edgbaston on Wednesday. We’ll have live scores and commentary from 11.00pm AEST.
It was a near-perfect performance from Australia in the second ODI to go 1-0 up after the opener was rained out.
They batted well to get to 315 for the loss of seven wickets and then pegged England back early, which prevented any chance of an English comeback into the game.
Michael Clarke’s first ODI century against England and an aggressive 82 in a supporting role from George Bailey set the foundation for that huge total.
Mitchell Johnson’s fiery opening spell was well supported by Clint McKay’s three-wicket haul and wickets for every Australian bowler who took up the attack.
Eoin Morgan’s decision to field first may have been surprising to some but the Australian captain – who wanted to bat first himself – said it wasn’t surprising given how well England chase.
The selection of the team may only be partially his decision but the fans will hope he – or the selectors – see that the attack lacks teeth at the moment.
In Steven Finn they have a bowler searching for rhythm. Boyd Rankin is still finding his feet for newly-adopted country.
And there is Ben Stoke as their third seamer, a bowling all-rounder who had an underwhelming day in the second ODI.
Without a front third pace bowler, England’s bowling attack lacks the edge. Add the fact that James Tredwell had an off day as well and it’s easy to see why Australia got to 315.
Chris Jordan may replace Stokes in the line-up if reports are to be believed, which should add more of bowling strength to the side.
And while Luke Wright’s in the squad, Michael Carberry will get another chance to open the innings with Kevin Pietersen, despite the Hampshire opener’s previous game failure.
Australia won’t look to change anything around but will want Shane Watson to come good.
Since the end of the Ashes series the likes of Shaun Marsh, Aaron Finch, Michael Clarke and George Bailey have all got going one time or the other and the onus will be on Watson now.
Bowling-wise, Australia have a better line-up.
Mitchell Johnson has shown signs of returning to his best and his pace and bounce made life difficult for the English batsmen.
Clint McKay and James Faulkner gave him good company and it will now be interesting to see how Fawad Ahmed responds to what should be repeat tactics from the previous game against him – the batsmen will look to take him on.
Follow the live score and blog of this third ODI from 11.00pm AEST. You can join me for this live blog and post your comments below.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
That's that from me now. Another disappointing evening in the ODI series. Hopefully we will have a full game on Saturday when they meet in the fourth ODI. Thank you for your company and have a good day ahead.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
The match has been called off. Abandoned. Second game of three that has been washed out this series. As I was saying earlier, cannot be good news for a format that's already dying. Australia go into the fourth ODI at Cardiff with a 1-0 lead.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Mopping up operations according to TV visuals but it's still pattering down. It will take one hour to get most of the moisture off the field but that's after the rain stops. Which hasn't happened so far.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Still raining in Edgbaston.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Yep, and West Indies were at the receiving end of it in the 2012 World T20 against Australia, although that was a game that could have gone either way. Coincidentally, like England, West Indies also went on to win the tournament without winning a single game in the first round!
ChrisUK
Guest
Oh well!
ChrisUK
Guest
I remember exactly that match. And if memory serves they came perilously close to exactly the same thing happening against Ireland, who were also offered up a pathetically easy target. In the end that was rained off and England went through on nett run rate having not won a game. It would have been ludicrous had they gone out - as it was it was ludicrous Ireland went out.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Nope, those 14 games were no-results. Not checked for games which were rain-reduced but had results - which I am sure will swell the number up. http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=2;host=1;spanmin1=05+Jan+2003;spanval1=span;template=results;type=team;view=results
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Yep, they often say that about D/L, it does not take care of T20Is as well as it takes care of ODIs. Paul Collingwood was most upset in the 2010 World T20 when they were done in by the system, against West Indies. Incidentally, the same thing had happened in the 2009 edition too and against the same team!
ChrisUK
Guest
Checking it, that tweet specified rain, so there may have been some bad light issues before floodlights became commonplace. And equally some of those matches abandoned may have had D/L results?
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
I just checked, from 2003 onward, there were 14 games which have been called off or abandoned in England. If this one gets called off too, will be the 15th.
ChrisUK
Guest
It doesn't though. It inflates the target to something extremely gettable because it doesn't take wickets into account, so you have a low run chase with all wickets in hand. We see it most obviously in T20, when sides have a target of 60, which might seem reasonable, but not when you've got the entire batting order to play with.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Technically, on paper, D/L is supposed to take care of that. So let's assume we do have a 20-over match now and realistically, England score another 40 runs in five overs. They will end with 100 in their 20 overs. D/L will then inflate that target to something much larger - probably 120-130 (not sure how much because I don't have the D/L sheet). Had England been 0/59 or 1/59 or 2/59, the target would have been even more inflated than it is now. Now 120-130 is a reasonable target but whether it's the right way to go about it, I am not sure. Reserve days as I said below, could be a better option.
ChrisUK
Guest
There's a tweet just gone out saying that of 54 ODIs played in England in September, only three have been a no result due to weather. Seems we've just been a bit unlucky.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Have reserve days at the expense of reducing the number of ODIs in a series? Sure, this isn't a World Cup (like the 1999 one in England which saw games continue on to the next day) but two out of three games abandoned isn't the best thing that can happen to an already-dying format.
ChrisUK
Guest
Would anyone still be there at 8:30? And how on earth could England put up any kind of score with only five more overs to bat? I seriously hope they don't do that.
ChrisUK
Guest
Somewhat feel that it's a bit of a joke in these conditions, because DL means the team that wins the toss has a massive advantage. Not sure what can be done to change that though.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
For a an ODI to have a result, 20 overs/side need to be bowled. That's 25 more overs (which should take them 1 hour, 40 minutes) plus the 10-minute change-over. Little less than 2 hours needed that means. The match needs to start by 8.30 pm local time (approximately in three hours time) or else it will be abandoned.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Australia robbed of another win by the English weather...
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Not much to say except that it's still raining in Edgbaston. So no chance of play for now. Not quite sure how much time would it take for them to get the ground in shape once it stops raining.