Australia won the toss and decided to bat first at Rose Bowl in the 1st One Day International against rivals England. The memories of ICC World T20 2010 final must be fresh. Their decision was obvious as batting under lights is never easy. Anderson, who had commentated that he probably would not play unless England plays only one spinner, played despite England opting for 2 spinners. Sidebottom is injured, yet again. Given how much he gets injured, people should not be notified when he gets injured, the real news is when he is not injured. Anderson and Bresnan started things off. They did bowl well in the start but could not produce any wicket. There were two expensive overs in the first 8 overs, one each by Anderson and Bresnan. In both of those overs, Watson struck two boundaries. Broad bowled the 9th over and after being smacked for two boundaries, he got the man. Watson was gone, which brought Ponting in. After Ponting's longest break in his career (10 weeks), he hit 17 against Middlesex and 33 against Ireland. On the last bowl of the 13th over, Anderson missed the chance of taking a spectacular catch. It wasn't that easy but we've seen JJimmy taking catches like those. Paine was relieved while Broady sighed.
Surprisingly, Strauss brought Wright in the 14th over. Not like I mind Wright being brought on, it's just that it felt like Wright is in the team to field, to chatter around with everyone and have champagne after each win. Anyways, Wright bowled Paine in his first over and got rid of Ponting in the 18th over. Time for spin, Yardy brought on. Anderson was brought back in the 22nd over, not disappointing, he got White. At this stage, Australia were struggling at 98/4. Now Australia would be all out for less than 200, England would win comfortably, another one sided victory.....or so I thought. Now was the time for quick bowling changes- Yardy bowled the 23rd over, Anderson 24th, Wright 25th, Swann 26th. Good strategy by Strauss. I'm sure no one would have felt left out. Okay, may be KP and Colly. But KP did enough while fielding to get attention as usual. Australia did well to reach 168/4 until the Michael-Michael partnership was broken by Yardy. Strauss just had too many options. The bowler for every over remained a mystery throughout the innings. Australia finished their innings on 267/7 with Michael Clarke not out at 87. Wright had the best figures- 2/34. Broad and Anderson too picked up two wickets each but Broad was slightly expensive. Broad's figures are similar in most matches. I would be surprised if he ever goes wicket less in an ODI. Yardy was the only bowler who bowled 10 overs, he took one wicket for 41 but he bowled better than that. Swann too bowled better than 0/44. Bresnan finished with 0/49. Personally, I have never wanted him in the team. I'm always surprised at seeing his name in the team because given that we have an awful lot of world class fast bowlers, I don't understand why he is playing. But, he hasn't really disappointed England much in One dayers. Stuart Broad now has 99 wickets in 61 matches, watch out for his 100th in the next match.
As compared to Australia's 98/4, England reached 97/4 when Collingwood got out.Yardy's name was written above Wright in the scorecard but I wanted Straussy to send Wright when England were struggling at 97/4. True, Wright isn't that kind of player that you would send when you are in trouble, but he must have gained some confidence by scoring runs with Morgan in the ICC World Twenty20. Wright and Morgan did pretty well to take England to 192/5 until Harris got Wright. By now, I had got used to watching England win so I never felt like they would lose. Pie eating Yorkshireman came in next, I must find out who is such a big fan of him in the England staff. Michael Holding kept saying that when you have Stuart Broad coming in at No.10, then you obviously have a long batting. Swann must have smiled at that. I've only seen him bat before Broad once, when Cooky was captain in Bangladesh. Oh, that reminds me, he has been named as the captain of England Lions for matches against A sides of India and West Indies. On the tour of Bangladesh, Cooky had said that Kieswetter has made a place for himself in England One Day side. Did Cooky think about his own place? I don't think so. How often does it happen that a stand-in captain is dropped and no one is surprised? Coming back to yesterday's match, Bresnan fell when England needed 5 to win, Morgan needed 1 to reach score his 3rd ODI ton. Yardy came in and took a single. Morgan finished the game with a boundary. Both his centuries for England have been memorable and at least this time he knew he hit a century. The pitch was pretty fast today. Wright reached 86 mph, Anderson and Broad 90.9 mph while Harris reached 96.5 mph. Josh Hazelwood became the youngest player to star in a One Day International for Australia. Don't miss the 2nd ODI on Thursday. Cheers!
