5th ODI Eng v Aus

Many thanks for following this English Summer loads more international cricket to come in the Winter a very good night to u all!

Eng 249 (Aus win by 49 runs & 2-1 series win) wickets as they fell

KP Pietersen run out 0 (1/1) forward just outside off, comes off the pad, cry for lbw, was outside the line, it runs past Matthew Wade and Carberry sprints through for a leg bye, Pietersen is very slow taking off and is well short of his ground as the throw comes into the bowler's end. Another calamitous run out involving these two and Pietersen is gone for a duck! Just what Australia wanted

MA Carberry lbw b Faulkner 30 (50/2) full and straight, wraps Carberry on the pads, huge cry for lbw, not out given but Clarke goes for the review. I reckon this is a good effort, Carberry got a long way down the pitch but it did look straight as he missed playing across it. No mark on Hot Spot and Hawk Eye has it crashing into middle stump, good review and Carberry is gone. He tried to shuffle across and create some angle for himself but missed. That he was down the track and possibly outside the line created enough doubt for Rob Bailey but the review proved it was a good shout

JE Root b Johnson 21 (64/3) full and wide of off stump, Root pokes at it without moving his feet and gets a thick inside edge onto his middle stump and that ends a very average innings from Root, he's looked rather out of touch today and played a poor stroke there. On a better day that would have been driven handsomely through the covers but a tentative prod has seen a thick inside edge smash into middle stump

LJ Wright run out 0 (68/4) drops one short, there's a direct hit... and Wright is run out, brilliant bit of work from Bailey! Wright is guilty of ball watching here, Bailey swooped in from the covers, threw on the move, only a stump and a half to aim at but the contact is just enough to nudge the bails off and Wright didn't run his bat in. If he has, it would have been mighty close

EJG Morgan st †Wade b Voges 30 (103/5) slides the ball across the advancing Morgan and Wade completes a simple stumping! Big wicket for Voges, that could well be the game. The bowler maybe saw him coming, Voges tossed it a little wider, beat the outside edge and the rest is a Michael Jackson LP

JC Buttler b Faulkner 42 (195/6) full and straight through him stumps parted and a killer blow for England, think Buttler just played around one, done by the angle perhaps. It was around the wicket from Faulkner, angled in to the stumps and Buttler tried to swing it down the ground and missed, is that England's last chance walking off?

RS Bopara c Voges b Johnson 62 (197/7) steps to leg and slaps straight to extra cover and now England are dead. Bopara nailed it, creamed it right out of the meat of the bat but couldn't evade extra-cover who's taken a very sharp chance at head height with two hands, a cold night is not the time for those chances but that was very well held. Bopara can't believe it because he couldn't have timed that any better but he's got to go and two wickets at the start of spells have killed any hope England still had

CJ Jordan c Bailey b Watson 14 (236/8) swung over the leg side, big stroke but not big enough and George Bailey, who has enjoyed an outstanding day in the field, has taken the catch a yard inside the boundary. It sounded, and looked, a pretty good slug from Jordan but they're pretty decent boundaries at the Ageas and that needed a bit more tap

BA Stokes c Clarke b Faulkner 27 (240/9) tries the ramp, it was another excellent yorker, it was a little too far outside off, tried to steer it over the off side in the end but just ended up chipping a catch to Clarke who pouched the simplest of chances gleefully

WB Rankin b Fawad Ahmed 4 (249/10) not that it matter because Rankin has swung and missed at the next delivery, lost his off stump and that's the game. Ahmed take the final wicket with a floaty legspinner that Rankin swung across and missed completely

Australia 298 (Watson 143, Clarke 75, Stokes 5-61) beat England 249 (Bopara 62, Faulkner 3-38) by 49 runs


As in the Ashes, Shane Watson saved his best until last to enable Australia to end their almost four-month stay in England with silverware as they wrapped up the NatWest Series with a convincing 49-run victory. Watson's 143 provided nearly half of Australia's total and his stand of 163 with Michael Clarke, who battled through with his troublesome back, was the defining period of the match and series.

England's chase only ignited when Ravi Bopara and Jos Buttler were adding 92 in 13 overs; perhaps it was the autumnal chill which descended and left spectators huddle up in jacks that prevented an early spark. But by then it was a monumental task, even for Buttler's nerves of steel. Kevin Pietersen was run out in the third over and any remnants of a chance, however slim, disappeared when Eoin Morgan departed straight after the halfway mark of the innings.

 

Australia were clearly the better team over the three-and-a-bit ODIs that the weather allowed and this trophy, although low down in the priority list when they arrived in late May, will be some solace for Darren Lehmann - who wasn't even in charge when the Champions Trophy squad landed at Heathrow. Australia really have been here that long.

 

That is not to say there are no benefits England can take, and in this match it was the bowling of Ben Stokes and debutant Chris Jordan - who replaced the injured Steven Finn - as they shared eight wickets. Stokes finished with 5 for 61 having struck early in the innings and then during Australia's collapse of 7 for 87. Both young pace bowlers were sharp, hitting 90mph, and held their nerve against flashing blades.

 

As in Cardiff, Australia struggled at the top and tail of their innings but this time the central plank provided by Watson and Clarke was so dominant it made a crucial difference. It appeared a rain break in the 10th over might derail their innings when, on resumption, Stokes struck twice in consecutive balls to leave Australia 48 for 3. But England's inexperienced attack could not keep up the pressure as Clarke and Watson feasted on some wayward bowling during their rapid partnership.

 

Watson reached his eighth one-day hundred from 87 balls in a muscular display of hitting and then latched on to Joe Root's sixth over, which cost 28, the most expensive by an England bowler in ODIs, including three massive leg-side sixes. He was threatening his best score against England - an unbeaten 161 at the MCG in 2011 - but edged behind to give Stokes his fourth wicket.

 

Stokes claimed his fifth two balls later when Mitchell Johnson lobbed back a return catch and along with Jordan and Boyd Rankin, the latter superbly economical on another good batting pitch, provided a positive glimpse at some of England's depth. Jordan had managed to open his wicket tally in his second over - after being driven twice by Aaron Finch in his first - when he beat Phillip Hughes for pace and the left-hander top-edged to midwicket.

 

Jordan returned in the batting Powerplay, taken early by Clarke in the 29th over, with Australia at the peak of their scoring rate and removed the Australia captain when he clubbed to mid-off for 74 five balls after Rankin had dropped him in the same position. Clarke had not been convincing at the start of his innings, as England tested out his back with the expected short-pitched attack, but was given early scoring opportunities to get his innings underway and was rarely under a run-a-ball. His straight drive for six off Stokes stood out.

 

The problem for England was that the combined 10 overs of spin from Root and James Tredwell went for 96; Watson immediately aimed Tredwell over midwicket in a four-over spell that proved his only one of the day. If other sides have been taking notes, Tredwell will need to "batten down the hatches", as he put it the other day, in future series.

 

Overs 21-30 of Australia's brought 93 runs - a scoring rate considered impressive for the final 10 of an innings - and at 202 for 3 after 30 overs anything seemed possible, but a combination of some laziness from them and resilience from England gave the final 20 overs a very different outcome, to the extent that Australia did not use up their final five deliveries.

 

Australia rued their late collapse in Cardiff, but it never had the feel of a repeat here. The Pietersen-Michael Carberry opening partnership has not hit it off in this series and for the second time it ended through a breakdown in communication. Pietersen was beaten but Matthew Wade could not take the ball cleanly and it bobbled to short fine-leg. Carberry started to make his way up the pitch, but only made a positive call a few seconds later, by when there was not enough time for Pietersen to make his ground.

 

Carberry's hometown innings - and perhaps, even, his last for England - was ended by the DRS after Rob Bailey had turned down an appeal from James Faulkner. Joe Root, who laboured for his 21, dragged on against the quick and thrifty Johnson when playing without footwork and most shambolically Luke Wright - a last-minute replacement for Jonathan Trott, who suffered a back spasm - was run out when he did not even attempt to ground his bat going for a sharp single.

 

Adam Voges gained an lbw decision against Bopara with his first ball, only for DRS to show it was sliding past leg stump, but he claimed the key wicket of Morgan when the England captain was drawn out of his crease and Wade did not add to his list of errors.

 

For a while, as Buttler and Bopara started picking off boundaries at will, a grandstand finish was not out of the question until Faulkner, from round the wicket, cleaned up Buttler. Seven balls later Bopara rifled a catch to cover off Johnson's first ball back to give him his 200th ODI wicket. That was that, barring the finishing touches, but for anyone who is feeling misty-eyed at the end of England-Australia contests, don't worry: it all starts again in 66 days.

Aus all out 298 (49.1 ovs) here is how England took the wickets

 

Hughes c Carberry b Jordan 2 dug in short again, tried tries to pull and Hughes has got a huge top edge - it loops to midwicket and Jordan leaps in the air to celebrate his first England wicket! Think Hughes was beaten for pace, the bottom hand came off the handle and he knew where this was going as soon as he connnected - poor Pippy, it's been a long few months FOW 13/1   AJ Finch c Morgan b Stokes 26 fullish, bit of width and Finch is tempted, doesn't get over a square drive and picks out Morgan first ball after the resumption! Not sure what Finch was thinking there, he surely could have done with a sighter, didn't need to go after that delivery but he's thrown away a promising start and the England players are singing in the post-rain  FOW 48/2   MS Wade c †Buttler b Stokes 0 and he's gloved his first ball behind, a golden duck for Wade! This is quackers, we've had a brief interruption and Australia have come out and lost two in two! Stokes beat Wade for pace with the bouncer, it was a touch leg side, again could have been ignored but the new batsman chased it, clear flick of glove and Stokes has another FOW 48/3   MJ Clarke c Pietersen b Jordan 75 another chance to mid-off, Pietersen's there this time and takes the catch as Clarke splices a pull stroke. Tried to open up the off side again did Clarke but didn't become a great position from which to play a pull stroke, perhaps got hurried by Jordan and got nowhere near enough on the stroke and it looped to Pietersen who showed Rankin how to do it FOW 211/4   GJ Bailey st †Buttler b Root 4 Bailey sweeps and misses, Buttler nudges off the bails and trots away to celebrate with Root - he seems pretty certain but the umpires send it upstairs to check. And the evidence is pretty clear, Bailey's foot stayed grounded just beyond his crease, he made no effort to get it back, so must have lost his bearings... This is going to be out, Root has done the trick, in slightly bizarre circumstances FOW 221/5   AC Voges c †Buttler b Stokes 8 edged and gone, caught at the wicket with Buttler plunging to his right! Bit of a nothing stroke from Voges, half forward and attempting a little push, the ball kissed the edge and just about carried through FOW 244/6   SR Watson c †Buttler b Stokes 143 steps away, swings the arms ... and nicks off! There'll be a few sighs of relief on the England balcony, as Watson was just threatening to take the game away again. He was looking to hit down the ground here but it wasn't quite full enough, Watson played down slightly the wrong line, small deflection and comfortably held FOW 282/7   MG Johnson c & b Stokes 2 tries to turn to leg again, leading edge and gone, caught and bowled! Stokes has five-for! Johnson departs with alacrity, having made just a couple, and England have now claimed 5 for 73 in 13 overs (which would look a whole lot better without that Watson assault on Root) FOW 284/8   JP Faulkner c †Buttler b Jordan 10  slightly back of a length and darting across Faulkner, Buttler throws himself down the leg side to take a sharp catch - was there a bit of glove on that? Umpire Dar thinks so but Faulkner immediately reviews. He thinks it flicked his sweater - and it did, but not before tickling the inside edge of the bat, Hot Spot clearly shows the mark and the decision is upheld. England have another FOW 294/9

CJ McKay c Root b Rankin 5  McKay steps to leg, Rankin follows him and the slog across the line goes up in the air, to be safely pouched by the man coming in from deep square leg! Boyd Rankin, the pick of the attack, has a wicket at last and Australia have been bowled out for less than 300 FOW 298/10 Innings break Australia 298 (Watson 143, Clarke 75, Stokes 5-61) v England  As he did in the Ashes, Shane Watson saved his best for the final match of the one-day series, as his 143 off 107 balls guided Australia to an imposing 298 at the Ageas Bowl, although Ben Stokes' five-wicket haul kept the target within England's range. Watson and Michael Clarke, who overcame his troublesome back, which had made him doubtful for the match, added 163 for the fourth wicket after Australia had found themselves in early trouble.   It appeared a rain break in the 10th over might derail the visitor's innings when, on resumption, Stokes struck twice in consecutive balls to leave Australia 48 for 3. But England's inexperienced attack - even more so in than the other matches of this series due to Steven Finn being ruled out with a side strain - could not keep up the pressure as Clarke and Watson feasted on some wayward bowling during their rapid partnership. However, there would be an impressive fightback in last 20 overs. Watson reached his eighth one-day hundred from 87 balls in a muscular display of hitting and later latched on to Joe Root's sixth over, which cost 28 including three, massive leg-side sixes. He was threatening his best score against England - an unbeaten 161 at the MCG in 2011 - but edged behind to give Stokes his fourth wicket.    That became five when Mitchell Johnson lobbed his second ball back to the bowler, leaving the tail to try and bat out the overs. They failed to do even that, for the second match in a row, as Boyd Rankin removed Clint McKay with the first ball of the final over to complete a collapse of 7 for 87 in 18 overs.   Finn's place in the line-up had gone to Chris Jordan, the Sussex pace bowler, as he earned his maiden ODI cap having been with the squad throughout the series. England had been forced into another last-minute change when Jonathan Trott went down with a back spasm meaning Luke Wright also played his first game of the series.    Jordan soon caught the eye with his speed - nudging 90mph - and although he was twice driven by Aaron Finch in his first over, in his second he beat Phillip Hughes for pace and the left-hander, who had replaced the injured Shaun Marsh, top-edged to midwicket. Jordan finished with an impressive 3 for 51 and a priceless learning experience.   Finch, who plundered a world-record 156 on this ground in last month's Twenty20, began positively but Australia did not restart well after a half-hour rain delay. Finch slashed at Stokes and provided a catch to backward pointing without giving himself a sighter and Stokes, who bounced out Marsh in Cardiff, then sent down a well-directed short ball at Matthew Wade after he had been promoted to No. 4.   Clarke was not convincing at the start of his innings as England went after him with the short ball, testing out that fragile back, but consistency was lacking to allow both him and Watson plenty of scoring opportunities. Watson was particularly powerful as he picked off Stokes through the leg side and the same bowler was also straight-driven for six by Clarke.   Further sixes followed for Watson, who was in the bullying form he showed at The Oval, off Ravi Bopara and James Tredwell, during another concerted effort to attack the spinner, whose four overs cost 38 - 17 of those coming off his second. Bopara, usually reliable in the middle overs, drifted too often on to leg stump and England's attack was looking a little threadbare.   At 30 overs, Australia were 202 for 3 and a total well above 350 was on the cards, the previous 10 overs having brought 93 runs. Clarke had opted to take the batting Powerplay in the 29th but did not see out the restrictions when he clubbed to mid-off against Jordan five balls after being dropped in the same position by Rankin, although it was a chance that travelled at a rate of knots.   England chipped away during the next 10 overs; George Bailey dragged his back foot out of the crease, Adam Voges edged Stokes behind and Bopara's last three overs cost just nine. Watson looked set to give the innings a powerful finish but, although he couldn't continue his plunder to the end and the innings plodded tamely to a close, it will still be a tough ask for England's batting line-up.