England’s hopes of an ODI whitewash came crashing down as Australia took the fourth one-day international by three wickets with 78 balls to spare. The damage was done up top when, having been put in to bat, the tourists were in complete disarray at eight for five – the third lowest score for which the first five batsmen have been lost in the history of the format. But Eoin Morgan does not want the experience to curb his side’s attacking nature.
“I’d rather be 40 for two than 20 for none,” the captain said after England’s first defeat of the series, and when it was put to him that consolidation rather than confrontation might have been a better approach on an Adelaide wicket that offered plenty for Australia’s bowlers. “We don’t want to lose our positive mindset. We don’t want to wipe 10 overs out of the game and say they bowled well but we only got 15-20 runs. We still want to take the game forward.”
In 38 balls of carnage Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root and Jos Buttler failed to score a run in 20 deliveries between them, while Alex Hales managed just three. A top six that have taken English ODI cricket to great heights had plumb new depths.
The Australia Day celebrations were capped off by Travis Head’s return to form, albeit cruelly falling short of a second ODI hundred with 96, as the hosts chased 197 to make it 3-1 with one game to play in the series. Australia will not get ahead of themselves – this is only their second win since beating Pakistan last Australia Day.
Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins were the Duck Hunters: Hazlewood removed Roy with the second ball of the innings before Cummins nabbed Hales for the third time across 14 balls in ODIs – bowled, off stump. Hazlewood had Bairstow caught behind, only the fourth time both openers have been dismissed in an ODI without scoring. Root became Cummins’s second only for Hazlewood to grab a third when Buttler was undone by a pearler.
“They bowled really well and the ball moved around,” Morgan said. “That rarely happens in a one-day international for so long. It was about finding a balance to take the game to them but also get through a tough period. It was tricky. A couple of the guys got really good balls.”
Morgan and Moeen Ali came together at eight for five and, through sheer will and little craft, they cobbled 53 between them. Ali hit the first and second boundary of the innings in the 15th over, but Morgan was taking more blows than he was dishing out. A clothed hook brought about his demise, as the first of two wickets in Cummins’s comeback spell to give him career-best figures of four for 24. Andrew Tye saw off the tail to finish with three for 33 – his first wickets in ODI cricket.
Were it not for a 78 from Chris Woakes, with four fours and five sixes, this would have been a pasting. The knock took him past 1,000 career ODI runs. He now has 170 runs across the four matches so far, for only once out. Since the 2015 World Cup the 28‑year‑old averages 46.46. The Australia captain, Steve Smith, averages 43.48 in the same period.
Tom Curran’s 35 in a partnership of 60 with Woakes ensured this match was still live by the time the traditional Australia Day 21-gun salute pounded the evening air. Head, an Adelaide local, had passed fifty at the time. He was dropped for the third ODI after two failures but was the beneficiary of Aaron Finch’s hamstring injury, which robbed the hosts of the series’ leading run-scorer. Head stepped up, hitting 15 fours to all but see his side home.
There were some crumbs of comfort for England. They kept David Warner in check again, edging Woakes behind for 13. They might have also found Smith’s kryptonite: for the fifth time in ODIs, the Australia captain fell to Adil Rashid. Head aside, no other opposition batsmen were able to succeed.
Smith was not happy: “The rest of us probably need to have a good, hard look at ourselves, start scoring some more runs and helping this team win some games.”
But this result reinforces the trepidation in lauding England as one of the best around. When they’re good, they’re great. And when they’re bad, they’re eight for five.
