England’s Alex Hales, David Willey and Mark Wood celebrate taking the wicket of Australia’s Travis Head Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Boyers
Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Reuters
15th over: Australia 78-2 (Marsh 34, Stoinis 1) Target 343 One ball for Stonis to see from Moeen, over the wicket it comes and the huge right-hander plays a lap well enough to squeeze a single to get off the mark. The end of the successful over. Earlier in it, Jonny Bairstow left the field, limping around the rope after making a diving stop at long-on. We’ll keep an eye on that one.
Round the wicket from Moeen, Short edges a sharp chance to Root at first slip from the crease. His debut hand is over with spin doing the trick. “They have put a real squeeze on them,” Jimmy Anderson says on radio of the tweakers. Sure have. The hosts on top.
14th over: Australia 74-1 (Short 21, Marsh 31) Target 343 Joey Root, have a trundle. Just as he did at The Oval, the Test captain is on to try and bleed a couple of quick overs out of the Australian innings. He’s done in perfectly, racing through giving up just three. Ten singles from three overs of England spin so far, Andy Zaltzman says on TMS.
13th over: Australia 71-1 (Short 20, Marsh 29) Target 343 Moeen wins an error from Marsh, another nearly/kinda drop at midwicket? Tom Curran is on from Willey and it is had to tell if it carried. Either way, the West Australian survives. Four singles to the sweepers picked up along the way. Short looking more comfortable now as well.
12th over: Australia 67-1 (Short 18, Marsh 27) Target 343 Big shout from Plunkett for leg before, Marsh the man on strike. It is turned down and after Wood’s early referral there is no option to take a second look. Was probably pitching outside leg in any case. Yet more runs through midwicket, a pair of twos from Marsh, keeps the board ticking. He was lucky the first of those wasn’t four, stopped only by a Wood dive on the rope.
11th over: Australia 63-1 (Short 18, Marsh 23) Target 343 Moeen is on one over after we expected, bouncing away from us at the broadcast end. Misfield at extra cover first ball, Roy not picking up cleanly at extra cover, so Marsh walks one. They take two other singles, both to the sweeper on the off-side. Nice and watchful. They will know it is vital that they aren’t opened up by spin again as they were midweek at The Oval.
10th over: Australia 60-1 (Short 17, Marsh 21) Target 343 Liam Plunkett on for the final over of the power play and he immediately feeds Short on the pads, who glances a four to fine leg. He repeats the dose two balls later! They don’t want Short to free his hands, Jimmy Anderson says on TMS, but they are giving up far too many away on the pads. It continues: Short again gets a run past square leg for one and Marsh three to backward square leg to finish the power play. 12 taken from the very poor over.
9th over: Australia 48-1 (Short 8, Marsh 18) Target 343 Short starts the new over with another single off the hip. I don’t believe he has scored a run anywhere but that corner of the ground so far in this innings. Willey has fed them there, to be fair. Some strike rotation in the second half of the over, runs behind both square leg and point. Short does score in the ‘V’ for the first time to finish, via a pushed single to extra cover.
8th over: Australia 43-1 (Short 6, Marsh 15) Target 343 Naked cyclists! Now I have your attention! Yep, a crew of nude people on bikes just rolled behind the scoreboard. It is a better over from Wood on the whole until he drops short to Marsh to finish, who has more than enough time to rock back and pull his second four of the day.
7th over: Australia 38-1 (Short 6, Marsh 11) Target 343 That is a nearly another chance at midwicket. Marsh’s clip didn’t quite make it to Bairstow. He’s far more convincing through the posh side cutting the next Willey delivery to the point rope. A couple more singles off the legs; too many of those so far. Marsh keeps the strike with a push to mid-off.
Australia’s Shaun Marsh plays a shot. Photograph: Geoff Caddick/AFP/Getty Images
6th over: Australia 31-1 (Short 5, Marsh 5) Target 343 Marsh grabs one fine and Short a couple down in that direction to finish. Between times, Wood has the junior of the two men defending. It won’t be long until he tries to pop someone on the moon.
5th over: Australia 28-1 (Short 3, Marsh 4) Target 343 Marsh very happy to defend Willey here until the chance arrives to drive, which is does expertly through cover for three. Short has a go! Swing/miss. This is what he does. Wait till he gets going, it’s brilliant. Can’t get off strike for the remainder of this set, mind.
TMS tells me that they are going to go back onto the field and play not at St Lucia after the two-hour delay. Hmmm.
4th over: Australia 25-1 (Short 3, Marsh 1) Target 343 Shaun Marsh has walked out at number three as he did in the series opener. He’s forced by Wood to play throughout the rest of the successul over, using a bit of width from the final delivery to get off the mark behind point.
Truth told, the major focus of the press box right now is what is happening in St Lucia. As I understand it: Sri Lanka walked out to play, were advised that they were going to be docked five points and walked off again. Blimey. Watch this space.
Scrap that, Head is gone! Gives a a catch to midwicket. Nothing shot, taken low by Hales to his right. It is referred upstairs to mak sure it carried and it did. Wood into the book.
3rd over: Australia 20-0 (Head 15, Short 3) Target 343 Short misses a ball on his hip from Wood but gets him a leg bye. Better to Head than he was in his previous set but the left-hander is confident on the front foot. Tucks a single fine to keep the strike.
2nd over: Australia 18-0 (Head 14, Short 3) Target 343 Earlier in the over it was Wood to Short, facing his first ball in ODI cricket. He sent down a wide down the legside to begin then a couple off the hip. He’s away. “What exciting times,” says Adam Gilchrist on TMS about the cap presentation before play. “He was quiet at the best of times but particularly nervous this morning.” Takes another single down that way too. So, Australia into double figures all in that general direction. Head changes that up lifting over the cordon for four more! Clever cricket, I always like an uppercut. As you already know by now, England wasted their review from the last ball.
1st over: Australia 8-0 (Head 8, Short 0) Target 343 Easy work for Head, clipping off his thigh for four first ball. With fine leg up, he can’t bowl there. That’s better, beats him next ball with a beaut of an outswinger. The left-armer found the South Australian’s edge early on at The Oval so he should be confident early on here. Urgh, he gives Head a second easy boundary from a misdirected delivery down the legside that he’s able to get a little tickle on. Good batting. Willey, not so much.
Stats, stats, stats. From a very handy briefing via the very clever people at CricViz that has just dropped into my inbox.
Since the last World Cup, Eoin Morgan’s team have won 72% of matches when chasing, but only 56% of matches when batting first.
58% of Roy’s runs today have come through the off-side, the most (min 10 balls faced) since October 2016.
Jason Roy played just 9% false shots today - that’s the lowest figure for any of his centuries. His century earlier this year at Melbourne saw 21% false shots.
England’s 71 runs in the first ten overs was their second highest Powerplay score ever against Australia.
Jos Buttler has now scored 105 runs with the scoop shot in ODIs. That’s the most by anyone in the history of the game.
Righto. The players are back on field Travis Head is alongside D’Arcy Short, the man on debut. David Willey has the ball in his hand. PLAY!
Thanks, Tim. Mighty effort from you with the much longer session than expected due to the rain. Isn’t Jos good at cricket? Plenty of oooohing and aaaahing in the press box as he did his thing. To adding a couple of extra stats to what Tim has noted below, that was the best ever ODI score at this ground, and if Australia win from here it’ll be their highest successful chase. The re-start is about ten minutes away so I’m going to grab a cup of tea. I suggest you do the same before dropping me a line (or a tweet).
50th over: England 342-8 (Buttler 91, Rashid 0) Tye bowls a near-wide, which is also short, and Buttler does phenomenally well to toe-end a cut for four. Last ball, he shovel-hooks for four more into the gap at long leg. Shame there wasn’t time for a hundred, but that is a sparkling captain’s innings. And it’s also England’s highest-ever one-day score against Australia.
England are firm favourites, but there are plenty of runs in this pitch and the weather is unlikely to get in Australia’s way. Thanks for your company and correspondence, combination sports and all, and it’ll be Adam Collins to see you through.
49th over: England 329-7 (Buttler 80, Plunkett 0) Willey finds his range with a tennis shot past long-off, then gets lucky with a top edge over Paine’s head. And then he perishes. But that gives the strike to Buttler, who cashes in with a cracking four through midwicket.
48th over: England 316-6 (Buttler 75, Willey 3) Buttler’s average with the scoop shot (or ramp) is 105, and his strike rate 223. He tries it again, the ball follows him, so he adjusts and dabs to backward point. There’s only a single in it, but that’s a stroke of genius. Australia are winning the final overs, though.
47th over: England 310-6 (Buttler 71, Willey 3) Richardson K rejoins Richardson J in the attack and keeps it tightish, though he gets away with a near-beamer which Willey does well to squirt down to third man.
An email lands from Geoff, who has just the one name, like Stormzy. “If John Starbuck is correct in his suggestion that donning combinations would improve almost any sport,” he wonders, “why has it done so little for baseball?”
Benedict Bermange (@Benedict_B)
This is the first time in ODI history that each of the first five wickets in an innings have added at least fifty runs
46th over: England 304-6 (Buttler 68, Willey 1) Richardson snaffles Moeen and almost gets Buttler too, as Tye just fails to dive forward at fine leg and swallow a top-edged swish. After that fabulous little flurry, Buttler has gone back to scoring at only a run a ball.
45th over: England 300-5 (Buttler 66, Ali 8) Tye keeps England just about in check.
And John Starbuck picks up on Andrew Benton’s musings (42nd over). “Combination sports are best when the contrast is largest, as in very fast/very slow, so ice-hockey + crown green bowls, or table-tennis/croquet. Or you could improve almost any sport by insisting the players wear combinations.”
44th over: England 295-5 (Buttler 64, Ali 5) Jhye Richardson gets three balls past Buttler’s bat, which is quite an achievement. And we even have some blue sky to encourage the Aussies.
“Footage of the last two overs should be shown to teach young batters how to move through the gears,” says Nigel Phillips, quoting me just now. “Cricket should be shown on free-to-view TV to show young people what it is.” Amen to that.
43rd over: England 293-5 (Buttler 63, Ali 4) Moeen for Billings is actually an improvement at this stage, as Moeen shows by swatting his first ball over midwicket for four. Nonchalant.
Billings drags one on, allowing Bumble to say “It’s a Welsh drag-on.” Billings remains out of form and out of luck, but he played his part – the 50 partnership had just come up, making this the first time in ODI history that the first five wickets have all yielded 50.
42nd over: England 281-4 (Buttler 57, Billings 10) Short continues, in a further sign of Tim Paine’s guts. Buttler plays an off drive that is more of a hockey shot, lovely fast hands. He has made 24 off his last eight balls. As Ed Smith said, he has unique abilities.
A thought from Andrew Benton. “What with all these international sports going on at the mo – football, cricket, rugby, golf, Wimbledon soon – in their own exclusive little sporty bubbles, I yearn for some crossover to break up the monotony, chess-boxing style. How about cricket-darts?”
