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Australia tour of England 2018: ODI series review
By Sandy - Jun 25, 2018 8:11 pm
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While England dominated in the recently concluded five-match home ODI series against Australia by winning the series with the 5-0 margin, Australia hasn’t disappointed much, apart from the record-breaking third ODI at Trent Bridge Nottingham.

England
England cricket team

England was the huge favourite even before the beginning of the ODI series as Australian team missed many important cricketers for this whole tour. Steven Smith and David Warner were not available due to serving the one-year banned for involving in the ball-tampering incident during the Cape Town Test last March. Moreover, the dependable and regular pacers Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins missed this tour along with the all-rounder Mitchell Marsh due to their several injury problems.

It affected very much in Australian cricket during that series while England grabbed the huge opportunity successfully, who began the series after a stunning ODI defeat against the associate team Scotland at Edinburgh. While Australia has to work in various places until their most of regular players return in the squad, England can’t sit back as they need to more sharpness to dominate the world cricket in this format.

England cricket team with the trophy

1st ODI (at The Oval, London): England began the series with the three-wicket victory at The Oval. Despite Australia was bowled out for a low total of 214 runs, England suffered a top-order and middle-order batting collapse that continued their headache.

2nd ODI (at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff): After managing a total of 342/8 with the help of opener Jason Roy’s century, Australia lost their top-half wickets in regular intervals. But Shaun Marsh’s single-handed century knock (131 runs) kept them into the game. However, his heroic knock went in vain as Australia was bundled out for 304 runs.

3rd ODI (at Trent Bridge, Nottingham): The match of series was the 3rd ODI where England destroyed Australian team with the huge records as they put a record-breaking ODI total of 481/6 with the help of dual centuries (Jonny Bairstow 139 and Alex Hales 147) and claimed a record margin victory after bundling out their opponents for just 239 runs.

4th ODI (at Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street): With the help of Aaron Finch (100 runs) and Shaun Marsh (101 runs) centuries, Australia managed to put 310/8 as their late-batting suffered huge collapse. In reply, England comfortably chased down the target in 44.4 overs after losing six wickets, thanks to Jason Roy (101 runs) and Jonny Bairstow’s (79 runs) 174-run opening partnership and Jos Buttler’s furious unbeaten half-century knock (54 off 29 balls).

5th ODI (at Old Trafford, Manchester): Australia was bowled out for just 205 runs while English batting suffered a massive collapse as they were once 114/8. However, Jos Buttler’s heroic unbeaten 110 runs knock rescued the hosts to claim one-wicket victory and secured their whitewash in the five-match ODI series.

 

Important stats review of this series:

  • Only second time when Australia suffered a whitewash in a bilateral ODI series that have five or more matches. The first instance was in 2016 when the hosts South Africa had whitewashed the Australian cricket team by beating 5-0 margin in the five-match ODI series.
  • Only second time when England completed a clean-sweep in a bilateral ODI series that have five or more matches. The first instance was in 2001 when England had claimed a five-match ODI series victory against the hosts Zimbabwe by the 5-0 margin.
  • Only second time Australia has lost six consecutive completed ODI games. Previously, it happened in 1996.
  • Since 1977, it was the first time for England to win two back-to-back bilateral ODI series against Australia. Earlier in this year (in January), England had won a 4-1 ODI series against the hosts Australia in the five-match ODI series.
  • Jason Roy (304 runs) and Jonny Bairstow (300 runs) became the second and third most runs scorer for England in a bilateral ODI series history against Australia. The record is 375 runs by Jonathan Trott in 7 games (2011).