After a commanding performance in London, England will have high hopes of continuing their run in Cardiff against Australia, who must bounce back to stay in the series. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage of the second ODI from 8pm (AEST).
The Australians, while still having two chances to keep the series alive, would find it very tough to come back from 2-0 down and so this match in Cardiff is virtually must-win.
While their squad is, for the most part, young and inexperienced, they should have performed a lot better than they did during the first ODI at The Oval.
With new captain Tim Paine winning the toss and electing to bat, runs were there for the taking, but they came up well short with a series of poor shots and bad decisions reducing them in the early going. Plenty of early wickets left the middle order and tail under pressure and while Glenn Maxwell played a great innings during the second half of the 50 overs, it was never going to be enough.
Maxwell ended up with 62 at a run a ball, joined by a handy 40 from Ashton Agar, but Australia were skittled for 214 in 47 overs. The English bowlers still have improvement left in them as well – virtually every Australian batsman through their wicket away, rather than being dismissed by something spectacular.
England then found themselves in trouble early as they slumped to 3 for 38, but captain Eoin Morgan (69) and vice-captain Joe Root (50) joined forces to put on 115 for the fourth wicket, taking the game away from Australia.
While it took the hosts 45 overs to reach the target after some nervy moments, they crawled to a three-wicket win.
Billy Stanlake, Michael Neser and Andrew Tye were the pick of the bowlers, but it defied believe the Aussies overlooked Nathan Lyon a ground like The Oval.
Australia could well stick with the same XI for the second ODI though, given they weren’t that far off the pace, but rather lost the game through their own poor decision making.
Improvement is needed on that side of the game, but then, England weren’t at their best either and will look to put Australia to the sword in this game.
Prediction
England were dominant without playing to their full potential in the first match. They too will want to improve on their batting, but I suspect a higher-scoring match in Cardiff with England again coming out in front, taking a 2-0 lead in the series.
England to win again.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of the 2nd ODI in Cardiff from 8pm (AEST) and don’t forget to drop a comment in the section below.
Stephen
Guest
England played well from the start ,definitely we were looking like novices especially while they were batting what big difference picking specialist players vs half allrounders makes was demonstrated in this match , marsh showed the value of having high quality top order players like khawaja in the side, we need to fix our batting
Broken-hearted Toy
Guest
Excellent innings from Marsh, he could have done with some support.
KenoathCarnt
Guest
If Stoinis or Finch our like 2 best batsman had done something we could of had a chance.
Scott Pryde
Expert
Thanks for joining me this morning on The Roar for a rather lengthy live blog of this second ODI - given we started 8 and a half hours ago, fair to say I've had more than enough. Hopefully you enjoyed the call. That'll be me done for the series, but be sure to join my colleagues for the remaining matches. Bye for now.
Scott Pryde
Expert
FULL MATCH SCORECARD England defeat Australia by 38 runs Toss: Australia to bowl first ENGLAND BATTING SCORECARD
TOTAL: 8/342 (50)
AUSTRALIA BATTING SCORECARDTOTAL: 10/304 (47.1)
England lead series 2-0Scott Pryde
Expert
Full match scorecard in a moment.
Scott Pryde
Expert
END OF MATCH Superb performance from England. They had some adversity having to get rid of Marsh, but really set it up with their batting during the first half of the match, with Jason Roy and Jos Buttler going big. England: 8/342 (50) Australia: 10/304 (47.1)
Scott Pryde
Expert
WICKET! Jhye Richardson, Caught Jason Roy, Bowled Liam Plunkett 2 (3) And that is the end! England win again with Richardson looking to send a full ball down the ground. He can only pick out Jason Roy near the boundary, with a pretty good catch taken there.
Over: 47.1 Australia: 10/304 Required score: 343
Scott Pryde
Expert
Jhye Richardson gets a single, then Kane sees out the over.
Over: 47 Australia: 9/304 Required score: 343
Scott Pryde
Expert
Kane Richardson the final man in.
Scott Pryde
Expert
WICKET! Andrew Tye, Caught Sam Billings, Bowled Adil Rashid 10 (6) Rashid tosses it up this time. Tye looks to go over long on and got most of it, but just didn't have the power to clear the fence with Billings settling underneath it and taking the catch.
Over: 46.4 Australia: 9/303 Required score: 343
Scott Pryde
Expert
Short and outside the off stump from Rashid. Tye cuts and they come back for two.
Over: 46.3 Australia: 8/303 Required score: 343
Scott Pryde
Expert
FOUR Well, Rashid isn't going to be happy with that. He tosses it up and Wood goes the slog sweep again. He gets this one and Wood has ducked underneath it. He missed it completely.
Over: 46.2 Australia: 8/301 Required score: 343
Scott Pryde
Expert
Rashid to bowl his eighth over. Tye on strike and he goes for a slog sweep, skying it a million miles in the air. It lands safe though.
Over: 46.1 Australia: 8/297 Required score: 343
Scott Pryde
Expert
A couple of singles to end the over, but this is all over red rover now.
Over: 46 Australia: 8/295 Required score: 343
Scott Pryde
Expert
Jhye Richardson in at 10.
Scott Pryde
Expert
WICKET! Shaun Marsh, Bowled Liam Plunkett 131 (116) And the end of Shaun Marsh, and probably Australia's chances at victory go with him. Plunkett with a pretty inoccouous full ball, angling to the leg stump. Marsh closes the face on it, plays all around the ball and it goes on to clip the stumps.
Over: 45.4 Australia: 8/293 Required score: 343
Scott Pryde
Expert
Tye straight off the mark with a single.
Over: 45.3 Australia: 7/293 Required score: 343
Brains of a bimbo
Guest
Closer than expected
Scott Pryde
Expert
Andrew Tye the new man.