It was the last chance for England to come back into the series and Jonathan Trott helped them achieve that with shining display with both bat and ball. For England Woaks made way for James Anderson while Collingwood replaced injured Swann to lengthen their batting line-up for this do or die encounter. Australia remained unchanged.
Strauss won the toss and batted on what looked like to be a batting surface. England started well and were also helped by Lee who started with 5 wides and then gave Matt Prior a friendly leg-side half-volley to open his account after two zeroes in the previous matches. Strauss departed early caught behind off Lee in his next over but Trott and Prior coasted along fluently and put up a solid stand of 113 runs for the 3rd wicket. Prior played aggressively and after hitting Bollinger for 3 consecutive boundaries he greeted Lee on his 2nd spell with another one charging down the pitch. After surviving a horrible mix-up Prior hit a thumping six off Lee to show that England are well and truly back in business. On the other hand Trott was doing the stabilizing job. Just when the things were getting out of hand, Australia got back into the game through Steven Smith who first got Prior to cut straight to Doherty and then removed Pietersen and Ian Bell in one over. At 158 for 4 after 27 overs match was evenly poised.
Trott along with Eoin Morgan got his team to a leading position again by batting sensibly and contributing 66 runs between them. Trott completed his hundred off 117 balls with 6 fours but departed soon after playing on off Hussey’s bowling to leave a door ajar for Australia. Hussey accounted for Morgan in the next over for 24 and the match was wide open again. But Collingwood finding his form at the right time made sure his team gets a good total. He and Michael Yardy added 56 crucial runs for 7th wicket as they took the batting powerplay in the 43rd over. Although Collingwood got out after making a run a ball 27, Yardy remained not out on 39 off just 27 balls with 6 fours. England made 299 for 8 setting Australia a stiff but gettable target on a good wicket. David Hussey was the pick of the bowlers with excellent figures of 4 for 21in just 4 overs while Smith took 3 for 33.
Australia lost their first wicket at 32 when Haddin’s brisk innings of 20 in 16 balls was cut short by Tremlett with a slower ball. Anderson, on his come back, accounted for Shaun Marsh cheaply making sure Australia sweat it out from there on. Out of form Michael Clarke and Shane Watson took the score to 87 when Clarke was brilliantly clean-bowled by Collingwood. And when Watson who was playing well fell for 64 (72 balls with 6 fours and a six) in the 24th over, Australia still needed 184 runs at 7 runs per over. David Hussey and Cam White put Australia on track again by adding 60 runs for the 5th wicket. Prior missed a stumping chance to give White a life but Jonathan Trott got England vital wicket of Hussey for 28.It was his 1st ODI scalp. The asking rate had climbed to above 8 an over but, White, the man who could have achieved that was snapped by Trott caught at the boundary. Australia’s chances were slim as asking rate soon jumped to above 9. Hastings departed early but Brett Lee and Smith tried their best to crawl out of the quagmire. They needed 73 runs from the last five overs but England restricted them to 278 for 7 at the completion of the innings winning. At last, by 21 runs. Smith (46 off 47 balls) and Lee (39 off 32 balls) remained not out. Trott and Anderson took 2 wickets each. Trott was named man of the match for his all-round performance.
After three consecutive losses, England have now found the winning recipe and the series has become alive. Like their captain in tests, Ricky Ponting, Australia’s ODI captain Clarke too has failed to motivate them and lead from the front. This might be a crucial factor in deciding the outcome of the ODI series.
Match: England (Trott 102, Prior 67; Hussey 4/27, Smith 3/33) beat Australia (Watson 64, Trott 2/31) by 21 runs
Series: Australia lead by 3-1
Published in SportPulse.net
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