Cricket: 300 up as England claim victory

By Ryan Moran

  • England won the toss and chose to bat.
  • England 300-8: Taylor 101, Roy 63, Morgan 62. Cummins 2-50.
  • Australia 207 all out: Finch 53. Plunkett 3-60, Ali 3-32.

Manchester, UK – England’s James Taylor, Jason Roy and Eoin Morgan hit over 50 each to take England to 300-8. Liam Plunkett and Moeen Ali took 3 wickets apiece to bowl Australia all out for 207.

Morgan led by example with the bat at Lords but his 85 could not stop England from falling 64 runs shy of their target. As England embarked on chasing what was already going to be a mighty feat, Ben Stokes’ controversial dismissal only hindered his side’s attempt to chase down Australia’s total.

Morgan won the toss and chose to bat first, a decision he would look back on with great delight. Alex Hales and Roy started well, putting on a 52 partnership before Hales became Pat Cummins’ first wicket of the day, caught by Mitchell Marsh for 9.

Taylor was brought to the crease, hoping to make it past the 50 mark which he got so close to at Lords. After dominating the opening exchanges, Roy made 50 runs for the second time in the ODI series. 13 more runs was all the Surrey batsman was able to make before being caught by Glenn Maxwell off of bowler Ashton Agar.

The England skipper was then in to bat, himself and Taylor were bright sparks in a disappointing match at Lords and looked to have the same effect again at Old Trafford. This was to be their day as Morgan and Taylor formed a solid partnership to take on the Australian bowling attack. Both batsmen brought up their 50’s within the partnership of 119 before Morgan fell for 62, Maxwell the wicket taker and Mitchell Starc the catcher with England 205-3.

Stokes and Jonny Bairstow continued where Morgan and left off only to fall for 14 and 17 respectively. A lower order collapse was on the cards when Ali and Plunkett fell in quick succession, followed by Taylor with the home side 291-8. Chris Woakes added a six in the final overs to take England to 300-8 at the end of their 50 overs, the bowler making 14 with the bat while Adil Rashid also finished not out with 1.

Joe Burns and Aaron Finch were sent in to get the score ticking over to produce another team total of over 300 runs. 32 runs in and Burns was sent back to the pavilion by Morgan catching from Steven Finn’s bowling. Steve Smith entered the crease on the back of an astounding performance at Lords however Rashid took the wanted wicket with Finn this time assisting with the catch dismissing the Australian captain for 25 and Aussies 75-2.

With Finch still at the crease, an innings could still be built. The opening batsman managed to reach his 50 before Rashid took his second wicket, the away side now 106-3. Australia started to crumble in the middle order with no one able to stick around to build an innings as Maxwell fell for 17, George Bailey fell for 25 and Matthew Wade managing to produce a 42. His innings tightened up a fragile lower order scoring little runs and getting out very quickly with Plunkett taking the decisive wickets. As Wade tried to push his side towards victory he was finally bowled by Finn with James Pattinson only scoring 2 not out at the other end.

The ODI series continues at Headingley on Friday 11th September as England look to make the scores even.

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