Monday, September 07, 2009

Australian late batting surge provides margin of safety: ODI #2

Australia 8/249 (50 ov, C Ferguson 55) defeated England 210 (46.1 ov, P Collingwood 56) by 39 runs. Australia lead series 2-0: ODI #2 at Lord's.

A low scoring, by the standards of modern ODIs, saw Australia recover modestly from 3/73, stutter to 6/179 then surge T20 style in the last five overs to reach 8/249. Callum Ferguson's 55 (58b, 5x4) kept the momentum going before Mitchell Johnson's 43* (23b, 5x4) last overs flourish gave Australia more hope.

England began purposefully but after Ravi Bopara was out at 74, the innings followed a similar pattern to their opponents', except that there was no Johnson to redeem the top order's shortcomings. Andrew Strauss looked as if he might do do but with the total 85 he hit an ultrasoft return catch to Nathan Hauritz for 47 (53 b, 6x4). Paul Collingwood had his scratchy moments but hung on for 56 (84b, 3x4) to give England a chance if someone could stay with him. Which no one did.

Scorecard .

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