The rain came a fraction too late to save England from defeat in the deciding ODI to Australia – but salvation would have been undeserved as a long season came to a soggy end.
After their batsmen spurned a glorious opportunity to reach a match-winning total, their bowlers used cricket’s answer to the ‘dark arts’ in a bid to prevent Australia’s chase from reaching 20 overs – the minimum required for a result.
Embarrassingly for England, the clouds only dumped their load when Adil Rashid had delivered four balls off the 21st, by which time Australia were 165 for two and 49 ahead on the DLS rain card.
Had the weather hit Nevil Road five minutes earlier the series would have ended 2-2. And that would have been a creditable result for England’s new one-day team after a 2-0 defeat to the world champions.
However, the Australians were perhaps less than impressed after Harry Brook’s side – with one eye on the darkening sky – cynically slowed things down as the 20-over mark approached.
Australia claimed victory in the deciding one-day international to win their series with England
The tourists reached 165 for two, well ahead of their Duckworth-Lewis-Stern target, when rain began to fall
First, Brydon Carse took forever to get his point back in the 17th over, which was followed – hilariously or ridiculously, depending on your perspective – by a drinks break.
Then Matthew Potts found himself having to change a boot, to the sound of clenched teeth in the commentary box from former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, who was famously on the receiving end of time-wasting tactics during the 2009 Ashes Test in Cardiff.
England then escaped, but they could not break away now, as they arguably failed to follow through on their tactics by rushing three overs of spin from Rashid, and refused to waste a few more minutes by asking for DRS in the 20th.
“I tried to put the seams in a little too late,” Brook said. “I was still trying to take wickets.”
Australian captain Mitchell Marsh, who missed the match, tactfully claimed he had been sitting in the back of the dressing room at the time, and instead made a light-hearted joke about last year’s Old Trafford Test when the weather in Manchester helped Australia. regain the ashes: ‘The rain almost saved them again.’
In part, England paid the price for an opening stand of 78 in seven overs between Matthew Short and Travis Head, and for their failure to ask for a review when Josh Inglis, who finished unbeaten on 28, advanced Carse to Jamie Smith on two.
But in reality they lost the match – and the series – by failing to build on an electric third-wicket stand of 132 in 16.2 overs between Ben Duckett, whose second ODI century was his first in any format against Australia, and the in-form Brook.
The England captain at one point launched Australia’s No. 1 spinner Adam Zampa for six sixes in nine balls as he threatened the residential apartments at Ashley Down Road End. And at 202 for two in the 25th over, the sky seemed the limit.
England started well at Nevil Road with Ben Duckett reaching his second ODI century
Captain Harry Brook added 72 but England could only manage 107 runs for eight wickets
But as in the first match of the series in Nottingham – where 213 for two became 315 all out – England were reeling against spin.
Brook was caught at long-off for a 52-ball 72 when he tried to hit Zampa for his eighth six, before Smith was bowled tamely by Glenn Maxwell and Liam Livingstone got behind Zampa for a duck.
Duckett quickly celebrated an excellent hundred from 86 balls in a series that has cemented his place as a 50-over opener, but he became the first of four wickets for Head’s soft off-breaks, and England needed some skilful batting from Rashid needed to get them. above 300.
But Short and Head put Australia ahead in the race, helped by the decision to surrender Will Jacks early. It didn’t work in the T20 World Cup match between these teams in Barbados in June, and it didn’t work here either: Head dismissed the over for 20.
When Short completed a 23-ball fifty – Australia’s fastest against England – the hosts were left hoping the weather would save them.
Yet England can take heart from their white-ball reset, especially as they have missed more senior players – Jos Buttler, Joe Root, Ben Stokes – than the Australians.
The shared T20 series saw the revival of Livingstone and the emergence of Jacob Bethell, while 28 Livingstone defeated Mitchell Starc in the final over of the England innings during the Lord’s ODI felt like a throwback to the Eoin Morgan era.
That match, which England won by 186 runs, was their most complete white-ball performance since winning the World Cup in 2019, and will be used by Brendon McCullum as a reminder of what England can do when they take control of the white ball. January.
Australia also started aggressively with the bat as weather conditions started to deteriorate
England tried to slow the game down to prevent their opponents from reaching the 20 overs required for DLS
It was also encouraging that Brook put a mediocre Test summer behind him, scoring 269 runs off 204 balls from his last three innings, with 27 fours and 10 sixes. He will leave in top form for the Test tour of Pakistan.
Other key figures had a mixed time. Phil Salt scored just 96 runs in five innings and continues to look more convincing as a T20 opener, while Jofra Archer shook off a poor start in Nottingham to bowl with pace and venom at Lord’s.
And the English spinners, who combined for just 10 wickets off 48, were outscored by the Australians, who took 23 off 24.
Ultimately, England was outclassed. And this time they couldn’t even claim the moral high ground.