Compact England cruise to 2-0 lead
England bettered their performance against Australia on Tuesday with an exceptional bowling display to restrict the Aussies to 239 and chased it down with ease in the 46th over, with 4 wickets to spare.
Similar to the previous game, Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting elected to bat and the openers came hard on the bowlers, adding 51 for the first wicket as Australia scored 51/0 in the Quick Start Overs, followed by 16/2 in the Bowling Powerplay. England kept chipping away at the wickets as the Aussies were reduced to 118/5 in the 30th over. However, Cameron White(86 n.o.) and Steven Smith added 84 in 71 balls for the sixth wicket taking Australia to a fighting 239/7 which was not match-winning by any means, but competitive nevertheless. OZ scored 90/2 in the Extreme Performance Overs, of which, only 33/1 came in the Batting Powerplay. Cameron White anchored the innings, scoring an unbeaten 86 from 98 balls, with 7 fours and 2 sixes, finishing with a Batting Momentum of 110. For England, birthday boy Stuart Broad, who turned 24 today, picked up 4/44 in 10 overs, his 6th four-wicket haul, earning a Bowling Efficiency of 273.
England skipper Andrew Strauss was very confident at the toss and was more than happy to chase. The English openers came out whacking the ball to all parts once again but lost Kieswetter early. Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Strauss added 68 for the second wicket as England scored 63/1 in the Quick Start Overs. After a good stand, England lost both their set players in quick succession, scoring 21/1 in the Bowling Powerplay. But Eoin Morgan, was at it again, playing a similar innings to the other night, but less aggressive, as he added 83 with Paul Collingwood for the ifth wicket. There was a stutter towards the end as slumped to 211/6 but Swann and Bresnan made the remaining 29 runs without any worry. Morgan(52) and Strauss(51) made crucial half-centuries while Doug Bollinger was the best bowler in an inexperienced bowling attack with 3/46 in his 10 overs. Strauss earned a Batting Momentum of 67 while Morgan gained that of 63. Bollinger finished with a Bowling Efficiency of 196.
The Overall Castrol Index does not show much difference between the two teams with England slightly ahed with 151 to that of Australia’s 147. England did exceedingly well gaining excellent Batting Momentum and Bowling Efficiency but Australia had their moments in the Bowling and Batting Powerplays. STUART BROAD was named the MAN-OF-THE-MATCH for his match-winning 4/44 in his 10 overs, finishing with an overall Castrol Index of 293. The third game of the 5-match ODI series is at Cardiff, on Sunday, the 27th of June, 2010 at 0945 GMT.
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