HUSSEY and TAIT power Australia to second consolatory win
After electing to bat, Australia struggled in the first half but Hussey led a spirited fightback, taking the Aussies to 277 followed by a morale-boosting opening spell from Tait who destroyed the top order and came back towards the end to stop a late onslaught to hand OZ their second successive win.
After opting to bat, Australia got off to a poor start, losing Watson early, scoring just 31/1 in the Quick Start Overs, followed by 17/0 in the Bowling Powerplay. The batsmen struggled to score on a good track and continuous loss of wickets left the Aussies struggling at 106/4 in the 30th Over. But two terrific partnerships, first, 107 in 92 balls for the fifth wicket between Marsh(59) and Hussey followed by 50 in just 26 balls for the sixth wicket between Hussey and Smith, propelled Australia to 277/7 as they scored 63/0 in the Batting Powerplay amassing 115/3 in the Extreme Performance Overs. Michael Hussey top-scored with 79 from 60 balls, with 5 fours and 2 sixes, getting his 31st ODI Fifty, finishing with a Batting Momentum of 136. Stuart Broad once again tormented the Aussies, though he did receive a bit of a stick in the end, finishing with 4/64 in his 10 overs and a Bowling Efficiency of 187 picking up his 7th ODI 4-for with good support from Swann(3/32), who finished with an amazing Efficiency of 225.
In reply, Tait was charged up right from the word go and decimated England’s top order as the hosts raced off to 50/3 in the Quick Start Overs, but managed only 16/0 in the Bowling Powerplay and were further reduced to 73/5 in the 17th Over. But England’s old warrior, Paul Collingwood, staged a fightback with two meaningful partnerships, first, 56 for the sixth wicket with Luke Wright and followed that up with 65 in 62 balls for the seventh wicket with Tim Bresnan. However, Tait’s comeback spell in the 41st over spelt doom for the home side who were just dreaming about a win, as Bresnan got run-out and Tait cleaned up Collingwood a couple of balls later. Graeme Swann tried to put up a fight towards the end but it was just too much for him as Australia won by 42 runs and ended the 5-match series 2-3 which could have been 0-5 after the third ODI. Paul Collingwood scored a fighting 95 off 121 balls, with 7 fours and two sixes, finishing with a Batting Momentum of 113 while Shaun Tait led the attack with a fiery 4/48 in 8.3 overs, ending with a Bowling Efficiency of 212.
Australia ended on a better Castrol Index of 177 as compared to England who got 141. Due to Australia’s late surge in their batting and a fiery start in their bowling, England never came anywhere close to them in any of the departments. SHAUN TAIT was named the MAN-OF-THE-MATCH for his match-winning 4/48 in his 8.3 overs, finishing with an overall Castrol Index of 226 while EOIN MORGAN was named the MAN-OF-THE-SERIES for scoring 238 runs in the series at an average of 59.50 and a Strike-rate of 92.24 with a ton and a half-century, ending up with a Castrol Series Index of 118. Australia next face Pakistan in the first of 2-match T20I series at Edgbaston on Monday, the 5th of July at 1600 GMT while England take on Bangladesh in a 3-match ODI series, the first of which is on Thursday, the 8th of July, 2010 at 1330 GMT.
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