Australia has gone 3-0 up in the ODI series against England, and now the hosts need to win all their game to win the series. As difficult as the task is, the Aussies have already begun to up the pressure and aim for a 7-0 win in the series.
Wednesday saw the English side win the toss and electing to bat first, but the house cam crumbling down after a decent 41-run stand for the first wicket. Ravi Bopara’s bad form saw him get out for ten, and then Matt Prior followed with a duck. Owais Shah has had a very surprising set of dismissals in the series so far, and this time he was wrongly given out lbw for eight to leave the hosts struggling at 62/3.
A small partnership of 36 between Andrew Strauss – who had opened the innings – and Paul Collingwood ensued but when the skipper was also dismissed for a classic 63, the English side looked like they were in deep trouble. The rescue act did not come till very late; Eoin Morgan was a party to it, but more surprisingly, as were the numbers nine and ten. Tim Bresnan held around for an unbeaten 31, whereas Ryan Sidebottom hit a 21 to steer the side to a modest 228/9 in the fifty overs.
The replay was sedate, with eight coming off the first four overs before Shane Watson hit a boundary and then got out – his first low score of the series. Cameron White, the in form batsman for the Aussies came in next and took his time to settle down, whereas Tim Paine did not have too many shots going his way either.
Paine departed soon after as the asking rate kept creeping up over the time. Michael Clarke, who had complained about losing his form thanks to the lack of indoor facilities at Oval, did not seem to have gained it back. However, from the Aussie point of view, the asking rate wasn’t huge, and he batted on wilfully without getting out. The pair batted for more than 30 overs for their 143 runs partnership; in fact Clarke struggled so much that it would have given the English a false sense of hope as well. But, their main worry was White’s stupendous and a rather matured way of batting which saw him get to a century and his team to a win.
White also won the man of the match award and with it, Ricky Ponting should make a return to the ODI side to lead the team in the rest of the games.