Twelve days on from the jubilation of their Ashes victory, England suffered only frustration as they fell behind in the NatWest Series at the same Brit Oval venue.
The crowd was comparatively subdued and so was too much of the batting as the chase towards a realistic target of 261 faltered during the trickiest twilight period.
For the first two thirds of the reply, England almost mirrored the Australia innings, but the loss of Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood in successive overs to Mitchell Johnson brought new batsmen together and the subsequent requirement against a rejuvenated team was too much even for a spirited effort sparked by Luke Wright.
Successive fortunate fours by Ryan Sidebottom in the penultimate over gave England one last chance and Nathan Bracken started the final over with 13 required. Adil Rashid pulled the second ball for four, but the demand of hitting a six to win from the last ball proved beyond Sidebottom, much to Australia’s relief.
Not until the 91st over of the game did a batsman on either side hit a six and those bowlers who took the pace off the ball generally prospered on a testing pitch. England could take encouragement from the performance of Rashid, but the decision to play an extra bowler was shown to carry a downside in the reply.
Advertisement
The result must have felt especially pleasing for Nathan Hauritz, whose omission from the deciding Ashes Test proved a devastating mistake by the Australia selectors. Hauritz bowled beautifully, floating the ball outside off stump with the drift to carry it wider.
England took the batting powerplay with 82 needed from eight overs, but Wright’s counter-attack ended when he was run out off a no-ball from Brett Lee. Recognised batsmen had fallen after making starts and while Ravi Bopara showed signs of a return to form, his 49 took 88 balls before he was deceived by Hauritz.
Matt Prior had already succumbed attempting to reverse-sweep. The Australia batsman had earlier made a point of pushing forward and playing the England spin bowlers between long-on and long-off. Just as England contained Australia in the middle stages, however, so Australia frustrated batsmen in reply.
The critical moment came when Shah trod on his stumps attempting to work Johnson off his hip, becoming only the second England batsman out hit wicket in one-day cricket. Two overs later, Collingwood, who was booed as he struggled to force the pace, succumbed to a fine overhead catch by Shane Watson at mid-wicket.
Earlier, Callum Ferguson and Cameron White produced their best one-day international scores, but Australia desperately needed the 82 runs from the final ten overs to propel the total towards estimates of par. The innings had slowed markedly after White and Shane Watson provided a strong start in the first two powerplays.
Advertisement
Rashid and Collingwood, focusing almost solely on off cutters, slowed proceedings and Rashid conceded only two fours in his quota. Michael Clarke, a fine player of spin, used his feet but struggled to pick the length and the capacity crowd of 23,000 warmed to the success — at least in terms of containment — of a young wrist spinner.
Watson fell to a leading edge and White, having completed a 64-ball fifty, was furious with himself at becoming the second run-out victim when he underestimated Graeme Swann’s arm in the deep.
England scrapped their warm-up game of football after the knee injury sustained by Joe Denly before practice on Thursday. A team spokesman said that scans have revealed a slight sprain rather than “major structural damage” but the Kent batsman has been ruled out of the game at Lord’s tomorrow.
Australia
S R Watson c and b Collingwood46
†T D Paine run out 0
C L White run out 53
*M J Clarke c Shah b Collingwood 45
C J Ferguson not out 71
M E K Hussey b Sidebottom 20
J R Hopes not out 18
Advertisement
Extras (lb 3, w 4) 7 Total (5 wkts, 50 overs) 260 M G Johnson, B Lee, Hauritz, and N W Bracken did not bat.
Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-93, 3-111, 4-190, 5-237.
Bowling: Anderson 7-0-35-0; Broad 9-1-52-0; Sidebottom 7-0-48-1; Wright 1-0-9-0; Rashid 10-0-37-0; Collingwood 9-0-47-2; Swann 7-0-29-0.
England
*A J Strauss c White b Lee 12
R S Bopara st Paine b Hauritz 49
†M J Prior c Johnson b Hauritz 28
O A Shah hit wkt b Johnson 40
P D Collingwood c Watson b Johnson 23
L J Wright run out 38
S C J Broad c Clarke b Johnson 2
A U Rashid not out 31
G P Swann c Paine b Watson 4
R J Sidebottom not out 13
Extras (b 3, w 10, nb 3) 16
Total (8 wkts, 50 overs) 256
J M Anderson did not bat.
Advertisement
Fall of wickets: 1-22, 2-83, 3-124, 4-161, 5-168, 6-178, 7-224, 8-229.
Bowling: Lee 9-0-65-1; Bracken 10-0-48-0; Johnson 7-0-24-3; Hopes 5-1-14-0; Hauritz 9-0-44-2; Clarke 4-0-18-0; Watson 6-0-40-1.
Umpires: A L Hill (New Zealand) and N J Llong.