Australia v England: 3rd ODI, Sydney

Australia:
DA Warner, AJ Finch, SE Marsh, MJ Clarke*, GJ Maxwell, DT Christian, BJ Haddin†, JL Pattinson, JP Faulkner, NM Coulter-Nile, XJ Doherty

England:
AN Cook*, IR Bell, GS Ballance, EJG Morgan, RS Bopara, JC Buttler†, BA Stokes, TT Bresnan, SCJ Broad, CJ Jordan, JC Tredwell

England have won the toss and have elected to bat.

Joe Root and Boyd Rankin have been replaced by James Tredwell and Stuart Broad.

Mitchell Johnson, Clint McKay and George Bailey are out for Australia, replaced by James Pattinson, Xavier Doherty and Dan Christian.

Not so hot today and there is some cloud cover.

The England side looks more balanced for this match. It should be interesting to see the spinners coming into play on both sides.

Could Morgan come in at 3? Apparently there is talk of that happening.

Not sure what the problem is with Johnson. Maybe a little niggle and they are erring on the side of caution there.

I would rather see Smith in the side instead of Christian but maybe they are resting him because of his recent workload (last night) in the BBL.

Decent enough start from Cook especially and Bell. Taking on Faulkner and Pattinson early on.

England are 22/0 after 4 overs.

Good referral from Cook (in hindsight) when given out lbw to Doherty. However hawkeye showed it going over the top of the bails.

Great catch from Maxwell at cover to dismiss Cook off the bowling of Coulter-Nile.

50/1 after 9 overs.

Linebreaker wrote:Great catch from Maxwell at cover to dismiss Cook off the bowling of Coulter-Nile.

50/1 after 9 overs.

Was a fine catch. Just when Cook seemed to have had some luck going his way with the successful review...but never mind , he has given his team the brisk start they wanted ; up to others to build on it now.

Interesting choice of Stokes for number three. Probably worth trying.

I see both teams are treating this ODI series mainly as trialing for next year , judging by the resting/rotating. Sensible , I think.
I know fans want to see the best players all the time : but there is just too much cricket ; so if they don't get rested now and then they will no longer be the best players for long - even if they aren't getting injured.

Run out !

Yes, he looked as though he was getting some mojo back, alfie.... just going for it, come what may... and it was paying off.

Spinners keeping the lid on things well here , since the Bell run out.

Couple of great pieces of fielding by Australia have brought them back into a game which looked in danger of racing away from them in that opening stand.
England need a solid stand here ; but these two inexperienced players won't want to get tied down for too long.

England 91/2 after 22 overs.

Run rate dropping back to around 4 now. Morgan and Buttler will have to do it again in the last 10-15 overs to get the score up around 300 by the looks of things.

Another successful challenge from Stokes - the ball was going over the stumps again. Looked pretty plumb at first glance live.

A stunning one-hander catch from Clarke gets Stokes now though...

It is in England's interest for Stokes to be out, he is batting at 2 runs an over

...but again England do not profit from an "escape"

Stokes immediately gone to another remarkable catch   

Australian fielding has been fantastic !

England are 131-4 after 30 overs.
But at least there is some sense in the selections. They might not prove good enough again, at least they have given themselves a chance with some sensible team selection. Good to see Tredwell in, and dumping Ranking is them acting sensible and nothing else.

alfie wrote:

I see both teams are treating this ODI series mainly as trialing for next year , judging by the resting/rotating.

that is a strategy that is applicable to teams that are winning and high on confidence.
Losers must do whatever to get wins under the belt and gain confidence

I wonder how Clarke will try and stem the inevitable flow of runs about to come up from Morgan? Doesn't look so easy when there is not much pace on the ball... surely Pattinson, C-N and Faulkner will be targeted shortly.

Quick question.

What do you call a Fly without wings?

dunno Biltong, grounded?

Bopara edges one to Haddin... maybe Buttler will have a better partnership with Morgs now.

You call it a Walk.   

Another unconverted start for Ravi Bopara, out for 21, England 177-5 after 40. Morgan the key yet again, and he has Buttler for company now.

Half-century for Eoin Morgan.

England has been very disappointing this summer, I have pretty much lost interest in watching this series

Nice catch from Dan Christian. He covered a fair bit of ground to gobble up a return catch from Morgan.

In other news.... Serena Williams has lost to Ana Ivanovic.  

Eng looking a batsman short.......another blunder to drop the talented Root

Bresnan underlines his indispensable value to England by powering the total over 240   

It won't be enough. But the final flourish was spectacular ...almost Faulknerlike ...

Berdych wins the first set against Anderson. On that note time for me to get ready for work. Enjoy the rest of the day's tennis.

KP_fan wrote:

alfie wrote:  

I see both teams are treating this ODI series mainly as trialing for next year , judging by the resting/rotating.

 

that is a strategy that is applicable to teams that are winning and high on confidence.
Losers must do whatever to get wins under the belt and gain confidence

I don't agree with that , KP fan. England sent some of their better players home for a vital rest before even the matches started. And I think Australia would be rotating their bowlers even if they were 2-0 down instead of winning.
Which they should do. Injured/exhausted players aren't going to win you anything.

243 runs might prove to be a tricky total to chase on this pitch. Ironically, it may have suited someone like Joe Root.
Another win for Australia is by no means a foregone conclusion.

Alfie, quite a few players were already sent home before this ODI series started.   

In Australia's case, the changes have been less forced although it was mentioned that they might give Haddin a rest for the next two matches. He does need a little break before the SA tour.

alfie wrote:

KP_fan wrote:

alfie wrote:  

I see both teams are treating this ODI series mainly as trialing for next year , judging by the resting/rotating.

 

that is a strategy that is applicable to teams that are winning and high on confidence.
Losers must do whatever to get wins under the belt and gain confidence

I don't agree with that , KP fan.  

OK..we can disagree

Finch departs for 22 runs, caught Bopara bowled Jordan.

Australia 50/1 after 8 overs.

Linebreaker wrote:243 runs might prove to be a tricky total to chase on this pitch. Ironically, it may have suited someone like Joe Root.
Another win for Australia is by no means a foregone conclusion.

Alfie, quite a few players were already sent home before this ODI series started.   

In Australia's case, the changes have been less forced although it was mentioned that they might give Haddin a rest for the next two matches. He does need a little break before the SA tour.

Haha , lb ...but I was referring to Anderson and KP ...and I think Swann was also set to be rested even before his surprise retirement. Plus of course Broad had the first two matches off.

Australia of course would be foolish to bash away with the same players all the time with a SA trip only weeks away. I heard the Haddin rest plan too : but so far they are still keeping him going....

Maybe don't want to break his hot streak ?

Well it appears us armchair selectors are taking a hammering here.
England really could've used the extra batsman in root and his bowling to try and get some kind of control whilst the quicks got hammered.

On the plus side ... Cook got over 30!
:/

It crossed my mind that Root's bowling might be missed more than his batting here , PSB.

But I think they wanted to give Ballance more game time ; and I am not sure anyone else could have been left out for Tredwell without upsetting the balance ( no pun intended )

They'll rest Haddin in Perth and Adelaide... is what I heard, alfie.

Tredders not doing a bad job here.

Australia 88/1 after 15 overs

well eng looking down the barrell.......it will be morale deflating should they lose the series 5-0
and a combined score of 10-0

Warner caught by Bell off the bowling of Stokes for 71.

Oz 121/2.

It feels like England are never in the match until Warner's wicket falls. If he's at the crease we just don't have anyone who can keep pace with his scoring rate.

alfie wrote:It crossed my mind that Root's bowling might be missed more than his batting here , PSB.

But I think they wanted to give Ballance more game time ; and I am not sure anyone else could have been left out for Tredwell without upsetting the balance ( no pun intended )

Oh for sure. This was the team pretty much all if us agreed would and should be put out, but as it turns out its been even less competitive than the batting heavy one.
They also appear to have gone for a more aggressive approach .. Pushing stokes up the order and waiting longer to go to the containing bowling rather than sticking with the strike bowlers. That failed as well.


Ho hum, I guess we just have to accept England simply aren't good enough.

Sangakkara wrote:It feels like England are never in the match until Warner's wicket falls. If he's at the crease we just don't have anyone who can keep pace with his scoring rate.

Welcome to the site, Sangakkara.   

Yeah, Warner is our Sehwag-type aggressive batsman.

He grew up not far from the SCG in Matraville... which is close to the sea but is quite a 'tough' area of Sydney. That probably explains his bullish attitude to the game... and him being a little rough around the edges sometimes.

Thanks Linebreaker. Nice to see such an active cricket section.

I think England could do with a player or two who are rough around the edges. They look like a team of softies right now, particularly the test team (Stokes aside)

It may have drawn some criticism but I really enjoyed Warner and Australia's in your face approach to this tour. It was exciting to watch. And Johnson's sniping comical and intimidating in equal measure.

More of it please. If Test Match cricket is to survive in the modern era then you're doing to need some tasty feisty rivalries to look forward to. That ain't going to happen if everyone is nice to each other.

They (the commentary team) were just talking to George Bailey about 1/2 an hour ago. He is a quiet sort of chap but he told everyone that Anderson "had it in for him... for some reason" during that controversial episode on the pitch in Brisbane. He (Jimmy) said something like "I'm gonna smash your face" (because he was wearing a big helmet fielding at silly point). That's when Clarke stepped in and uttered his famous words.

Not saying that some type of banter shouldn't happen but there should be a line which is not stepped over. Maybe Jimmy was trying to unsettle Bailey but in this instance it all kind of backfired on him and the rest of the England team. Pretty fiery stuff.

Bopara clean bowls Clarke. ... he must have heard me.   

Australia 173/3... 21 overs left.

Nice bowling from Ravi so far.

Do you think the Aussies raw agression was a reaction to Anderson crossing the line then, or it was a pre-existing strategy that was only intensified by the Anderson/Bailey altercation?

well,... this series has really exposed English cricket hasn't it.

there's a real sense of being utterly outclassed here now.  Going to take years to rebuild I suspect.  We can enjoy many years of thrashings and Aussie dominance now. 

we only need to sort the batting, bowling, fielding and leadership and we'll be sorted.

Sangakkara wrote:
Do you think the Aussies raw agression was a reaction to Anderson crossing the line then, or it was a pre-existing strategy that was only intensified by the Anderson/Bailey altercation?

Mostly likely a pre-existing strategy... triggered by Jimmy.

trebellbobaggins wrote:well,... this series has really exposed English cricket hasn't it.

there's a real sense of being utterly outclassed here now.  Going to take years to rebuild I suspect.  We can enjoy many years of thrashings and Aussie dominance now. 

we only need to sort the batting, bowling, fielding and leadership and we'll be sorted.

Nah , trebs ...if you are back on duty I look forward to winning the next two ODIs and sweeping the t20   

We know who the real key player is in this team...

Sangakkara wrote:
I think England could do with a player or two who are rough around the edges.

let Flower show he can digest one first   

well..  cancelling sky and stopping watching in protest and the greed of two Ashes in one year didn't go well for them did it.

I think they're on their own now, i shan't be buying the TV again, haven't missed it one jot.

trebellbobaggins wrote:well,... this series has really exposed English cricket hasn't it.

there's a real sense of being utterly outclassed here now.  Going to take years to rebuild I suspect.  We can enjoy many years of thrashings and Aussie dominance now. 

we only need to sort the batting, bowling, fielding and leadership and we'll be sorted.

or sort out the main coach...and rest will fall in place   

You're not wrong trebell.

The thing I'm still astounded by is Flower's interview where he said he "saw this coming".

If he saw it coming and didn't do anything pro-active to try and stop it then it would indicate that it will be a painfully slow process, if every stage is going to be reactionary.

trebellbobaggins wrote:well,... this series has really exposed English cricket hasn't it.

there's a real sense of being utterly outclassed here now.  Going to take years to rebuild I suspect.  We can enjoy many years of thrashings and Aussie dominance now. 

we only need to sort the batting, bowling, fielding and leadership and we'll be sorted.

It seems to me that when things go wrong for England it happens almost immediately and they can't turn it around (this series and the one in the UAE). Whether this is an issue with an inability to adapt when under the cosh under unfavourable conditions abroad or whether that's just the nature of tours themselves - I don't know. I don't think England have ever been that good in the ODI series compared to the test series. And Australia are the type of team that appeared to have developed a culture that there are no "dead rubber" matches and when they were the top side in test matches they were also generally the top side in ODI.