Australia have endured a shocking batting collapse when within touching distance of a first ODI series win against England since 2015 to lose game two in Manchester by 24 runs.
Cruising at 2-144 in pursuit of 232, Australia lost 4-3 in 21 balls as England quicks Chris Woakes (3-32) and Jofra Archer (3-34) caused havoc under lights in Manchester to level the three-game series at 1-1.
Australia’s total collapse was 8-63 to be all-out for 207 in the 49th-over after captain Aaron Finch and Marnus Labuschagne put their team in a winning position.
The pair were barely troubled after coming together at 2-37, and England captain Eoin Morgan seemed lost for options.
But Morgan’s “all-in” move to bring Archer and Woakes back on for their second spells early yielded results, with the latter trapping Labuschagne lbw to end the 107-run stand and spark Australia’s dramatic downfall at Old Trafford.
Heroes in the game one win on Friday, Mitch Marsh and Glenn Maxwell quickly had their stumps rattled, while Finch also departed as the game was turned on its head between the 30th and 34th over.
Wicketkeeper Alex Carey (36) mounted a brave resistance, but the long tail was always going to make the task of scoring 85 runs at close to a run-a-ball extremely difficult.
Finch said it was the “million dollar question” about how to stop a collapse being so severe.
“At times we might just might not be 100 per cent committed to our plans,” he said.
“I think at times we might overplay the situation in our head and we’ve got to get better at that.”
It will be of little comfort to Finch, but during his innings he came the fourth Australian to reach 1000 ODI runs in England, behind Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke and Adam Gilchrist.
Australia will be ruing allowing England to score late runs in their innings, when the hosts were on the ropes at 8-149 thanks to legspinner Adam Zampa’s bamboozling spell of 3-36.
Tailenders Tom Curran (37) and Adil Rashid put on a crucial 76-run ninth-wicket partnership, which included 53 from the last four overs, to push England to 9-231 after appearing they would fail to reach 200.
Morgan (42) and a watchful Joe Root (39) were England’s best in the top-order.
Australia were again without star batsman Steve Smith, who was left out of a second-straight match despite passing a second concussion test following a hit to the head at training last Thursday.
England haven’t lost an ODI series on home soil since going down 3-2 to Australia five years ago and will be aiming to protect that record in Wednesday’s deciding game.
Morgan said his team would take genuine confidence into game three after the morale-boosting victory.
“The bowlers made us look good today, particularly when Woakes and Jofra came back and asked questions of that big partnership,” he said.
“That’s as well as we’ve bowled for a while.”
Cari
Roar Rookie
I take you're point Paul but each time when you should have won, your opening bats did their job and set the amount of runs and overs left were more than enough to win the game, you can't ask for more of your opening batsmen. I am not saying that your solution would not work but I think that you're selectors will not change the batting order.
maverick
Roar Rookie
231 wasn't a great effort considering the condition and the fact that England were 150 for 8. In the entire series,both Cummins and Starc have been leaking runs at the death. By resting, I mean give someone else like Sams or Meridith a go. Now it's time to test some young players for the next world cup.If you don't play them,then why fill Your squad with 8 quicks?
badmanners
Roar Rookie
Not so much against the current opposition. Might as well give him the night off for the third game.
Paul
Roar Guru
The "weaker" bats have shown they can handle the conditions though Cari. I think there are any number of guys who could open or bat 3 in both short ball formats, other than Finch & Smith.Guys like Stoinis, Phillipe, etc, are happiest at the top of the order, when the ball is still hard and the fields are up. They struggle to really get going once the ball gets soft and they can't hit where they like because of the extra fielders in the deep. I agree it's not ideal, but given our lack of a world class finisher, I don't see why it shouldn't be tried.
TheCunningLinguistic
Roar Rookie
He said he’s been back in full training for a few months now, so that’s encouraging. He’s definitely a nice guy, took the time to sign all my son’s cricket gear and chatted to us for about 15 minutes. He even played a prank while my son was getting Aaron Hardie’s autograph, hiding the lollies that he left on the desk! :laughing:
Crystal ball gasing I know, but I'm 90% positive Finch won't make the 2023 world cup. 3 years away to start building a robust team that will win. Warner, maybe, because he's a better player than Finch, so could adapt his game a little better arrest his eventual decline. Stoinis probably has a handful of games left to actually cement himself as a permanent player, with Marsh competing with him for the same spot really. And we also need a wicketkeeper batsman that isn't mediocre.
Sgt Pepperoni
Roar Rookie
I'm not a Maxwell fan. See CWC 2019 for reference
Sgt Pepperoni
Roar Rookie
Cricket is such a batsmen's game and as an ex-bowler (albeit terrible) it always gets my back up when people blame the bowlers Yes it would have been lovely to bowl Eng out for 170 when they were 8/129 but 231 is a very gettable target that Aus would def have taken at the start of play. The batting collapse from 2-144 to be all out for 207 was where we lost the game IMHO. Selecting more batsmen rather than sloggers/all-rounders would be how I would address this. Similarly I fail to beleive that the Eng selectors are looking at 231 and thinking good job boys
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
Agree. There are points on every game now, I can only imagine for WC qualifying, but Australia should never miss a world cup. Therefore they have to try different combinations, different bowlers in different scenarios to develop plans and players for the real games - the World Cup. Everything else is just trials, regardless of the 'fake' importance placed by boards and broadcasters. If you were aware that was what's happening at the moment you'd have a completely different appraisal.
bowledover
Roar Rookie
Yeah. I dont disagree. I just hope the selectors stop picking him to bat lower down the order - he hasnt flourished, whereas at 3 he showed much more promise. To your other comment about the top order being stacked - also agree. If Langer and Co do not reshuffle finch down to say 5 or something, the top 4 is pretty locked in and it likely doesnt make much sense to bring in Head or Stoinis accept as perhaps a backup, but they already have Wade in the touring party for that.
HR
Roar Rookie
Good to hear - he's a great bowler to watch, and seems like a quality person too.
HR
Roar Rookie
Starc bowled pretty well, but Cummins hasn't bowled well in one dayers in the UK historically (average of 31.94 compared to 28.25 overall, strike rate of 35.84 vs 32.55 overall), and he's shown that again here.
HR
Roar Rookie
A dead weight that hits 77 off 59 as part of a record partnership after the team was 5/123?
Cari
Roar Rookie
Hmm? If you place your best batsmen lower down the you leave weaker bats facing the new ball, not sure that's the answer.
I said I'm not a "huge Jhye fan". He's a good player with probably 100+ game australian career ahead of him, I just think he's over hyped. People making out he's the next Brett Lee or something. I still think he's a good player who will probably replace Stark in 2-3 years time in the shorter formats. Maybe even Tests. But if he's still struggling with his bowling shoulder a full 18 months after injuring it, that's worrying. Possible he'll never get back to where he was before
He won't bat at 3 as long as Smith is in the team
Cari
Roar Rookie
No team ever lets the opposing team score runs or take their wickets, the idea it does is frankly stupid. Both teams have serious problems, England on loosing their top batsmen early and Australia a batting collapse after their top bats have made the win pretty easily. Of the two I think Australia has the harder task because a collapse in losing 8 for 60 odd is some collapse, anyway on Wednesday we will find out.
Tom
Haha, good to see he is somewhat on the road to recovery. Hopefully not to far off getting back in to action then.
TheCunningLinguistic
Roar Rookie
Not sure why you’re not a Jhye fan, I think the guy has a huge future! I think he’s an extremely talented bowler, especially considering he ‘only’ 5’10”. He’s no mug with the bat either...
TheCunningLinguistic
Roar Rookie
I just played cricket with Jhye at a Midland Guildford Junior Cricket event, and he had no trouble swinging the bat hard at it! He was also bowling- though admittedly slow, as it was to juniors! :laughing: