Rain arrived a fraction too late to save England from defeat in the deciding ODI against Australia – but salvation would have been undeserved as a long season came to a soggy end.
After their batsmen spurned a glorious chance to rack up a match-winning total, their bowlers employed cricket’s answer to the ‘dark arts’ in a bid to prevent Australia’s chase reaching 20 overs – the minimum required for a result.
Agonisingly for England, the clouds did not dump their load until Adil Rashid had delivered four balls of the 21st, by which time Australia were 165 for two and 49 ahead on the DLS rain chart.
Had the weather hit Nevil Road five minutes earlier, the series would have finished 2-2. And that would have been a creditable outcome for England’s new-look one-day side after falling 2-0 down to the world champions.
The Australians, however, might have been less than impressed after Harry Brook’s side – with one eye on the darkening skies – cynically slowed things down as the 20-over cut-off approached.
Australia claimed victory in the deciding one-day international to win their series with England
The tourists reached 165 for two, well ahead of their Duckworth-Lewis-Stern target, as the rain started to fall
First Brydon Carse took an age to get back his mark in the 17th over, which was followed – hilariously or ridiculously, depending on your perspective – by a drinks break.
Then Matthew Potts found he needed to change a boot, to the sound of gritted teeth in the commentary box from former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, who had famously been on the receiving end of time-wasting tactics during the 2009 Ashes Test in Cardiff.
England escaped then, but they could not wriggle free now, arguably failing to carry through with their tactics by hurrying through three overs of spin from Rashid, and declining to waste a couple more minutes by asking for DRS in the 20th.
‘I tried bringing the seamers on a little bit too late,’ said Brook. ‘I was still trying to take wickets.’
Australia’s captain Mitchell Marsh, who missed the game with stiffness, tactfully claimed he had been at the back of the dressing-room at the time, and instead offered a light-hearted joke about last year’s Old Trafford Test, when the Manchester weather helped Australia regain the Ashes: ‘The rain almost saved them again.’
In part, England paid the price for an opening stand of 78 in seven overs between Matthew Short and Travis Head, and for their failure to ask for a review when Josh Inglis, who finished unbeaten on 28, edged Carse through to Jamie Smith on two.
In truth, though, they lost the game – and the series – by being unable to build on an electric third-wicket stand of 132 in 16.2 overs between Ben Duckett, whose second ODI century was his first in any format against Australia, and the in-form Brook.
England’s stand-in captain at one stage launched Australia’s No 1 spinner Adam Zampa for six sixes in nine balls as he endangered the residential apartments at the Ashley Down Road End. And at 202 for two in the 25th over, the sky seemed the limit.
England started brightly at Nevil Road with Ben Duckett reaching his second ODI century
Captain Harry Brook added 72 but England could only manage another 107 runs for eight wickets
But, just as they did in the first game of the series at Nottingham – where 213 for two became 315 all out – England faltered against spin.
Brook was caught at long-off for a 52-ball 72 trying to hit Zampa for his eighth six, before Smith was tamely bowled by Glenn Maxwell, and Liam Livingstone caught behind off Zampa for a duck.
Duckett was soon celebrating a superb 86-ball hundred in a series that has cemented his place as 50-over opener, but he became the first of four wickets for Head’s gentle off-breaks, and England needed some skilful batting from Rashid to get them above 300.
But Short and Head got Australia in front of the rate, and were helped by the decision to give an early over to Will Jacks. It didn’t work during the T20 World Cup game between these sides in Barbados in June, and it didn’t work here: Head butchered the over for 20.
When Short completed a 23-ball fifty – Australia’s fastest against England – the hosts were left hoping the weather would save them.
Even so, England can take heart from their white-ball reset, especially as they have been missing more senior players – Jos Buttler, Joe Root, Ben Stokes – than the Australians.
The shared T20 series saw the resurgence of Livingstone and the emergence of Jacob Bethell, while the 28 Livingstone took off Mitchell Starc in the last over of England’s innings during the Lord’s ODI felt like a throwback to the Eoin Morgan era.
That game, which England won by 186 runs, was their most complete white-ball performance since lifting the World Cup in 2019, and will be used by Brendon McCullum as a reminder of what England can do when he takes the white-ball reins in January.
Australia also started aggressively with the bat as weather conditions began to worsen
England attempted to slow down play to prevent their opponents reaching the 20 overs required for DLS
It was heartening, too, that Brook put a middling Test summer behind him, scoring 269 runs off 204 balls from his last three innings, with 27 fours and 10 sixes. He will leave for the Test tour of Pakistan in prime form.
Other key figures had a mixed time. Phil Salt managed just 96 runs in five innings, and still looks more convincing as a T20 opener, while Jofra Archer shook off a poor start in Nottingham to bowl with pace and venom at Lord’s.
And England’s spinners, who managed just 10 wickets between them at 48, were outbowled by Australia’s, who took 23 at 24.
Ultimately, England were outclassed. And, this time, they couldn’t even claim the moral high ground.
