Travis Head (Photo: Twitter)
Travis Head was at his belligerent best in scoring a career-high 154 but failed to shore up Australia’s chase of 316 to win the first one-day international against England on Thursday and record their 13th consecutive victory in the 50-overs format.
It was the sixth century in an ODI for the left-handed opener and his first since an equally brutal knock of 137 in Australia’s victory over India in the World Cup final 10 months ago.
The tourists needed a big innings from someone after Ben Duckett scored 95 in England’s 315 all out at Trent Bridge, a ground known to be a haven for short-boundary batsmen.
England would have expected more after being 211-2 after 32 overs, but Australia’s bowlers, including part-time slow bowler Marnus Labuschagne (3-39), slowed the run rate and took nine wickets in total, many at crucial times. England’s last seven wickets fell for 83 runs, with Head even having a hand in two of the wickets.
Head then went on a rampage with the bat, hitting 20 fours and five sixes as Australia cruised to 317-3 and a seven-wicket victory with six overs remaining. It was the highest individual score by an Australian in England and surpassed his 152 against the English in Melbourne in November 2022, further enhancing his status as one of the world’s best and most destructive white-ball batsmen.
“I’ve been working really hard for a few years and I probably play a bit more relaxed now,” Head said. “I just take it as it is and try to enjoy what I do. That shows in the way I play.”
To celebrate his centenary, Head placed his helmet on the handle of his bat and raised it skywards. He was there at the end to see Australia cross the finish line in their most successful ODI in England.
Labuschagne was there too, just as he was in that World Cup final chase in Ahmedabad and posted an unbeaten 77 off 61 balls.
In England’s innings, Will Jacks scored 62 for his third half-century in eight ODIs, and Australia’s leading spinner Adam Zampa took 3-49 in 10 overs in his 100th ODI.
“We were thinking of getting a big result, no doubt,” said England stand-in captain Harry Brook. “It wasn’t meant to be. It was tough there in the middle against the bowlers, we probably didn’t rotate the attack as well as we wanted to and ended up getting a sub-par result at the end.
The second ODI of the five-match series between the fierce cricket rivals will be at Headingley on Saturday and Australia will hope to have veteran players Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Glenn Maxwell available after they missed out in Nottingham due to illness.
The Australians will be without pacer Ben Dwarshuis, who was making his ODI debut but suffered a suspected pectoral strain while bowling off-balance from the boundary during England’s innings and came off injured.
Dwarshuis had bowled only four overs up to that point and never returned to the field. His absence was part of the reason Australia bowled only spin for the last 18 overs of England’s innings and the strategy worked.
“The longer the innings went, the better we thought pace was the option,” said Australian captain Mitchell Marsh. “It was a hunch and the way we bowled, especially our part-time bowlers, was fantastic.”
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First published: September 20, 2024 | 12:41 pm IS
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