Excellent fielding by those from down under - great team effort barring the cheap appeal by the keeper.
As for England’s bowling, bouncers might soften up the opposition but a good yorker or the top of off is the key to wickets, even allowing for batter’s error.
Great game all round - who would have thought England would win?
P.S. sorry to hear that Ian Bell has retired. One of the most elegant players I’ve had the privilege to watch (after Gower of course).
Pete - another T20 today, this time 2-15pm local. Weather forecast at the moment looks OK - sunny intervals, obviously cloud and ~10% chance of rain.
@Camphuw - re Ian Bell, I remember when he came up through the age-group team and looked a class apart. Credit to him that he worked hard on his one-day game as, initially, he wasn’t seen as powerful enough for this form of the game. Another player who is defined by the saying ‘form is temporary, class is permanent’.
Apparently there was another game overnight, good win congrats the Aussies were completely out played. Least I won’t be up all night for the next game.
Well, it seems England pitched the ball up a lot more (‘duh’ from me) and got early wickets - interesting that Carey was elevated up the order. He looks a very good bat but, thankfully, not yesterday. I thought the Aussies did well to get a decent score on the board, as they could easily have folded to ~130. Seems the #3/4 slots aren’t nailed down for them as Smith, for all his good qualities, isn’t a hitter and I’d take Malan over him. The Powerplay seems to drive some sacrificial thinking.
Watching Buttler at the wicket with his spring-loaded bat challenges my thinking on how to play the game e.g. stepping to leg early doors and showing all the stumps to Pat Cummins. It’s great to watch and scary at the same time. Another valuable knock by Malan.
I wouldn’t have had Zampa bowl the 19th over though. I think that was a tactical error - Richardson could have bowled, leaving Cummins with the last over.
And if England win tomorrow, they are top of the T20I rankings - for what that’s worth.
It was also interesting to listen to Warner talking about cricket and what it’s going to entail over the next 6m’s or so, with the delayed IPL to be played in Dubai (IIRC) and how the players will all be in ‘bubbles’ at home or abroad. As remunerative as these things are, it’s a tough ask for someone like Warner to be away for so long and be cooped up, even when they return to Aus to play.
No I was in denial, unfortunately I stayed up (well till 2nd last over). Between flicking across to the TdF and F1 it was a big night, and I’m not staying up for Tuesday nights game. I’ll save my energy for the IDOs, hopefully 3 to 5 will find some form.
England did well in the T20 to get to 145 yesterday on a slow wicket, aided by some streaky runs from Denly towards the end, in a much under-powered batting side. Some of the batting was ugly to watch.
…and then England fielded in parts like a club Sunday 2nd XI. The real high note again was Rashid who, once again, exposed the Aussies’ inability to play spin. Oh, and Archer fed some short stuff to Finch early doors which got to the boundary quickly, which is always helpful when defending a low-ish total.
Agree totally. A scruffy performance by England all round, although Australia still managed to make the chase look difficult.
Time that pitch was put to bed I think. Bairstow also needs to stop swappI ing his bat every few overs and change his approach instead. Gruesome to watch at times.
The sort of match that makes me want to see ‘proper’ cricket again, although I will settle for some ODIs
First IDO tomorrow, looking forward to something a little more substantial than T20. Starts at 9.30pm here so I‘ll at least get to see the first innings without falling asleep. Any news, weather etc would be enlightening.