Australia have their noses in front in the ODI series against England. Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Glenn Maxwell returned to the side and all of them made an impact with the ball. The left-arm quick was especially fascinating to watch. There are still three more games to go but England will have to improve their batting if they are to stage a fightback.
For Australia, Mitchell Marsh and Alex Carey batted defiantly. First the skipper scored a 60 while wickets tumbled around him, and then the keeper-bat built small yet handy partnerships with the middle and lower order to drag Australia to a respectable 270. His exploits included a 49-run partnership with the No.11, Hazlewood, whose contribution amounted to just four runs off 11 balls in an alliance that stretched from the 37th over to the 45th.
England batters just didn’t turn up in the manageable chase as they folded for 202 in the 41st over. Not a single batter got to 50, with Jamie Smith’s 48 the top score.
Brief Scores: Australia 270 in 44.4 overs (Alex Carey 74, Mitchell Marsh 60; Brydon Carse 3-75, Matthew Potts 2-30, Jacob Bethell 2-33) beat England 202 in 40.2 overs (Jamie Smith 48; Mitchell Starc 3-50, Josh Hazlewood 2-54, Aaron Hardie 2-26, Glenn Maxwell 2-15) by 68 runs