After comprehensively beating England in the first ODI at Trent Bridge, Australia will face off against the home side in the second ODI on Saturday 21st September.
Match Preview:
In the first ODI, batting first on a flat Trent Bridge pitch, England posted 315 on the board – not a massive total given the ground dimensions but not a mediocre one. A few hours later, it proved to be at least 50 runs short as Travis Head smashed a whirlwind 154 not out to reduce the run case to a walk in the park. At one stage, the home side – without their regular skipper and swashbuckling batter Jos Buttler – were cruising at 232 for 3. But remarkably the final 15 overs were dominated by Australian spinners as the quartet of Matthew Short, Adam Zampa, Marnus Labuschagne, and Travis Head put brakes on the scoring rate.
At the toss, a few eyebrows were raised when the Australia skipper Mitchell Marsh revealed that the playing XI consisted of only three frontline bowlers: Ben Dwarshuis, Sean Abbott, and Adam Zampa. When the first innings ended, however, the four Australia spinners had bowled 30.4 overs between them, claiming 9 out of the 10 wickets to fall.
Talking about the home side, unless England batters can quickly find a way to negate the spin threat before the next fixture at Leeds, expect the spinners from the visiting side to be equally impressive. Despite being in a dominating position at one stage thanks largely to Ben Duckett’s superlative and boundary-laden 95 and an equally impressive half-century from Will Jacks, England once again failed to find the right tempo and were stuck between defense and hyper-aggression.
While the three Australia pacers failed to pose a massive threat, the home side was virtually clueless against the four spinners. In the field, Jofra Archer’s six wicket-less and ineffective overs exemplified a poor outing with the ball as Australia out-bowled, out-batted, and outclassed England.
With the Champions Trophy around the corner and only a one-day gap between the first and second ODI, England must regroup quickly to turn their fortunes around in white-ball cricket.
Probable Playing XIs
Jofra Archer’s injury record and Brydon Carse’s poor outing with the ball mean England might be tempted to bring in Saqib Mahmood, and Reece Topley to the side. Expect Duckett to open the innings once again.
England: Phil Salt, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith, Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse/Saqib Mahmood, Jofra Archer/Reece Topley, Matthew Poots, Adil Rashid.
Ben Dwarshuis walked off the field after delivering just four overs in the first ODI, and that means the visitors will have to make once forced change to their side that was so dominating at Trent Bridge.
Australia: Mitchell Marsh, Travis Head, Steven Smith, Cameron Green, Marnus Labuschagne, Alex Carey, Matthew Short/Glenn Maxwell, Aaron Hardie/Josh Hazelwood, Sean Abbott, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa.
Pitch and Weather Report:
Playing cricket in the UK in the month of September means there is always a threat of showers interrupting the game, but Leeds’ forecast for Saturday is close to ideal. With Head in top form and both sides consisting of so many power-hitters, expect another run-fest at Headingly.
Head-to-Head Record:
Out of a total of 157 ODIs played between the two sides, Australia have triumphed in 89 fixtures while England have claimed 63 games.
Prediction:
In the absence of Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, and Joe Root, England have a very inexperienced side – Adil Rashid had the most ODI runs in the home side that took the field on Thursday. Australia are the reigning world champions in this format and after their world-class performance at Nottingham, it is hard to see England coming back in the series.
Where to watch:
Pakistan: Tapmad
UK: Sky Sports
India: SonyLiv app and website
Australia: Foxtel
Others: CricHD
