Australia captain Mitch Marsh has hailed both the calmness of his injury-hit team and the excellence of stand-in skipper Steve Smith as the tourists celebrated a victorious, if somewhat soggy and anti-climactic, end to their UK tour.
Marsh, out with a sore back, watched impressed on Sunday as Smith juggled his depleted attack excellently and, buoyed by an unlikely, career-best spell from part-time spinner Travis Head, orchestrated the victory over England at Bristol that earned Australia a 3-2 win in the ODI series.
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Player-of-the series Head also cracked valuable runs as chasing Australia then won their race against wretched weather to win by 49 runs on the DLS method.
Head, who began the series with a glorious ton, ended it with surprisingly masterful bowling, taking 4-28 off 6.2 overs, before his quickfire 31, allied to a record-breaking half-century from Matt Short, sealed the deal just before the deluge came.
Pursuing England’s formidable 309, the focus had been on whether Australia could score enough over their first 20 overs — the minimum needed to ensure a result — to get ahead on DLS.
They did just that, racing along to 1-103 over the first 10-over powerplay before ending up at 2-165 — perfect timing as it turned out, with heavy rain starting on cue just four balls after the 20-over mark.
Smith was on 36no alongside Josh Inglis (28no) with Australia able to prevail after three testing weeks beset by injuries and illness.
The latest was Marsh’s sore back, but former Test skipper Smith proved the safest pair of hands as a replacement from the moment he won a big toss and inserted England in ideal seaming conditions.
Yet he had to overcome a headache as England countered with a brutal early assault, star spinner Adam Zampa getting clouted for six sixes by England captain Harry Brook while Ben Duckett was racing to a brilliant hundred.
But by mixing and matching eight different bowlers, Smith’s part-time spinners worked marvels as England sank from 2-202 just before halfway, with 400 a seeming possibility, to 309 off 49.2 overs.
“The way that, well Smudge (Smith) especially, and the bowling attack assessed the conditions and were able to pull them back, it was a fantastic effort,” said Marsh.
Brook had continued his dazzling form with 72 off 52 balls, while Duckett (107 off 91), continued the flying start after fellow opener Phil Salt’s manic 27-ball 45.
Brook took down Australia’s supposed mid-innings controller Zampa while targeting the short Bristol boundaries, clocking him for half-a-dozen of his seven sixes before finally miscuing one from the flustered leggie.
England then unravelled, Head coming on to grab the big wicket of Duckett, while Zampa (2-74) got danger man Liam Livingstone caught behind for a duck.
England stuttered so badly, with Maxwell (2-49) and pace-bowling allrounder Aaron Hardie (2-38) also impressing, they only limped past 300, thanks largely to Adil Rashid’s 36 off 35 balls before he became Head’s final victim.
“Four-for — and death bowling as well! I don’t know why Josh Hazlewood is always complaining about bowling at the death,” teased Head afterwards.
“I didn’t come here expecting to bowl in the 50th over twice, so very nice to get the job done.”
With the bat, he then deposited Will Jacks’ spin for 20 in one over, while Short (58 off 30) was even more destructive, reaching 50 off just 23 balls with a fourth huge six over midwicket – the fastest ODI half-century by an Australian against England, which even featured one maximum that sailed out the County Ground.
Comedy ensued as the 20-over mark neared as England appeared to resort to time-wasting desperation, with Matthew Potts making a strategic, and not very subtle, call for a new boot.
“We’ve seen this movie before…” chuckled Ricky Ponting in the commentary box.
But Australia weren’t to be denied.
“It’s certainly been a tricky series (with the injuries and illness) – five one-dayers in 12 days was always going to be a challenge – but it’s just the calmness, our ability to stay present with the elevens we put out, that impressed me,” said Marsh. “It’s been a great few weeks.”