Key events
7th over: England 74-2 (Salt 36, Livingstone 23) Cameron Green replaces Stoinis. Salt helps a poor ball round the corner for four, then takes a couple of singles to move to 36 from 17 balls. That includes 35 off the last 12.
Nine from the over which isn’t bad for Australia, especially as four of the last 13 will be bowled by Adam Zampa.
6th over: England 65-2 (Salt 26, Livingstone 21) Livingstone has a vile hack at Abbott, with the ball flying past leg stump for four. A double misfield from Fraser-McGurk allows England to steal a bonus run, and then he can only palm a flat pull from Livingstone over the boundary as it bounces up. He’s getting all sorts from the crowd after those two deliveries.
A ferocious pull for four from Livingstone completes a terrific over for England, 17 from it.
“Do you understand England’s team selection?” says Phil Harrison. “I confess I don’t. Why is Jamie Overton playing as a specialist batter? I know they’re missing Buttler and Brook but is Overton really the next cab off the rank? Baffles me.”
We mentioned this earlier – personally I like the selection as No7 is a specialist position in which Overton has excelled, and it’s not like he’ll never bowl again. You probably wouldn’t do it in a World Cup, but this is what bilateral series are for, surely.
5th over: England 48-2 (Salt 25, Livingstone 8) Marcus Stoinis gets some treatment in his first over. Salt thick edges for four, then Livingstone runs down the track to whack a humongous six into the crowd at cow corner. He tries again off the last ball of the over and is beaten by a slower bouncer. Well bowled.
“I was impressed by Brydon Carse’s fast bowling in Australia’s innings,” says Colum Fordham. “Is there Test match potential there? He got up to 89 mph.”
England certainly think so as he’s in the squad for Pakistan. He’s also a very good lower-order batter. In truth I’ve never been that impressed with him for England, but he was excellent tonight. You’d imagine the ongoing betting case had a negative impact on his cricket over the last year or so.
4th over: England 35-2 (Salt 20, Livingstone 0) Abbott greets Liam Livingstone with a majestic off-cutter that cuts him in half and bounces just over the stumps. He swerves one the other way to beat Livingstone’s defensive push, then has a fairly big LBW appeal turned down. Australia review but I’m fairly sure this is missing leg.
Indeed it was, so Australia lose a review. But that’s a remarkable first over from Abbott: the only run he conceded was a wide and he picked up two important wickets.
WICKET! England 34-2 (Cox b Abbott 0)
Two wickets in three balls! Sean Abbott goes straight through Jordan Cox to hit the top of middle and leg, and now England are in trouble. The first two balls of Abbott’s spell were around 75 mph; the third was 10mph quicker, with a bit of seam movement, and Cox was beaten all ends up.
WICKET! England 34-1 (Jacks c Fraser-McGurk b Abbott 12)
Sean Abbott dismisses his Surrey team-mate Will Jacks with his first ball. Just as at Southampton, Jacks lifted the ball miles in the air towards long leg, and this time Jake Fraser-McGurk took a calm catch.
Salt belts three successive sixes
3rd over: England 33-0 (Salt 20, Jacks 12) After a slow start, 1 from 5 balls, Salt smashes Hardie for three sixes in a row. He pulled sweetly over midwicket and square leg, then swiped mightily over long-on and into the River Taff.
England needed an over like that; they’re now only four runs behind Australia at the same stage.
2nd over: England 13-0 (Salt 1, Jacks 11) Blimey, Travis Head has given the new ball to the 21-year-old left-arm spinner Cooper Connolly. It evokes Will Jacks being fed to Head at the T20 World Cup, when he bowled the second over of the innings and was walloped for 22.
Jacks is the batter this time and goes straight on the attack, driving Connolly’s first ball over mid-off for four. Connolly does well to keep things relatively quiet after that, with a wide and three consecutive twos to Jacks. Australia will take that.
1st over: England 2-0 (Salt 1, Jacks 1) Aaron Hardie starts excellently with the ball, hitting a good length with enough outswing to make life difficult. Salt gets off the mark from his fourth delivery with a leading edge that drops short of mid-off, then Jacks works another behind square.
Salt has had a relatively lean trot since those back-to-back hundreds in the Caribbean in December. He’s still averaging 34 with a strike rate of 160, mind.
Here we go, Aaron Hardie to Phil Salt…
England need 194 to win
That looks a tall order on a pitch that looks awkward when pace comes off the ball. England need to go huge in the Powerplay.
Australia’s top four did most of the work, from Travis Head’s 14-ball 31 to Jake Fraser-McGurk’s stylish first fifty in international cricket, and Aaron Hardie made a very handy 20 from 9 balls at No8.
20th over: Australia 193-6 (Green 13, Hardie 20) Australia finish with a flourish, burgling 20 runs from Sam Curran’s final over. Hardie started with successive boundaries, thrashing to long on and slicing deliberately over backward point, then pulled a muscular six over midwicket. Shot!
Curran tries to hide the ball just inside the tramlines but gets it fractionally wrong on a couple of occasions. That means a couple of extra deliveries, though he does manage to avoid conceding any further boundaries.
19th over: Australia 173-6 (Green 13, Hardie 3) It should have been 44 for five off 6.1 overs. Green mistimed a pull off Saqib Mahmood and was badly dropped by Overton, running in from deep midwicket. Green pulls the next ball flat and hard for six, with a bald fella in the crowd taking a much tougher catch before turning to salute the crowd. #baldcommunity
England review unsuccessfully for LBW after a cracking yorker from Mahmood to Hardie. There was a slight bottom edge and it would have swung past leg stump anyway. But it was a beautiful delivery from Saqib, which he follows with a bit more reverse swing to beat Green.
Saqib bowled far better than figures of 3-0-37-0 would suggest.
18th over: Australia 161-6 (Green 2, Hardie 2) The No8 Aaron Hardie can play – his highest first-class score is 174 not out – so England still have work to do. An excellent over from Curran, full of cutters and slower balls, costs only four.
The downside for England is that Australia will know how important it is to take pace off on this pitch. Even so, this has been a really good comeback: Australia have scored 44 for four off the last six overs.
WICKET! Australia 157-6 (Inglis c Carse b S Curran 42)
Two in two balls, and this is a really useful wicket for England. Inglis lifts a slower ball from Sam Curran towards deep square, where Carse runs in and slides forward to take a well-judged catch. Inglis made an excellent 42 from 26 balls, inlucing 24 from his last 10.
17th over: Australia 157-5 (Inglis 42) Carse ends a very impressive performance with figures of 4-0-26-2.
David is out! Yep, UltraEdge shows the slightest bottom edge. David went for a short-arm pull and scraped it through to Salt. No idea why he reviewed; he even looked at the bottom of his bat as he chatted to Josh Inglis.
WICKET! Australia 157-5 (David c Salt b Carse 1)
Inglis is flying now. He hits Carse’s first two balls for four, dragging a pull from well outside off stump before rifling a drive past mid-off.
Carse does brilliantly to concede only one from the last four balls of the over, and caps a fine performance with the wicket of Tim David off his last delivery. Or does he? David has reviewed.
16th over: Australia 148-4 (Inglis 33, David 1) Inglis, a fine player of spin, makes room to ping Rashid for a sweet straight six, then gets a reverse sweep past backward point for four. Very fine batting. The usual ones and twos make it 15 from the over; Rashid finishes with figures of 4-0-35-1.
15th over: Australia 133-4 (Inglis 18, David 1) Australia bat really deep so the loss of Stoinis might be a blessing in disguise. Livingstone is having another excellent day/night: 3-0-16-2.
WICKET! Australia 131-4 (Stoinis c J Overton b Livingstone 2)
Marcus Stoinis wasn’t out there for a good time or a long time. He blazed Livingstone miles in the air and was comfortably caught by Jamie Overton, running in from long on. That’s Livingstone’s fifth wicket of the series.
14th over: Australia 126-3 (Inglis 12, Stoinis 2) Rashid has always troubled Stoinis, most notably in the 2019 World Cup semi-final, so it’s no surprise to see him back in the attack. Stoinis settles for low-risk singles; Inglis is more expansive and heaves a pull to long on that is brilliantly stopped by Jordan Cox. Seven from the over, again with no boundaries.
I still think Australia are ahead but England have done pretty well since dismissing Travis Head.
“I realise this will come as quite a shock to the many Australian fans who adore him,” begins Kim Thonger, “but it appears that Ricky Ponting is an anagram of City Porn King, and I’d like to be the first to point out that these aberrations of language are always entirely coincidental and should simply be ignored rather than shared on social media, especially in Australia where he is rightly revered as a folk hero.”
He’s been called worse, especially in this country.
13th over: Australia 119-3 (Inglis 7, Stoinis 0) The spinners have again dragged England back into the game. Rashid and Livingstone have combined figures of 4-0-22-2. The seamers have gone for 96 from nine overs.
WICKET! Australia 119-3 (Fraser-McGurk c J Overton b Livingstone 50)
Fraser-McGurk works Livingstone for two to reach a confident, stylish half-century, his first for Australia. We’ll be seeing a lot of him in the next ten years – but not tonight, because he has slog-swept Livingstone down the throat of long on. Jamie Overton takes a comfortable catch to end a fine innings.
12th over: Australia 117-2 (Fraser-McGurk 48, Inglis 7) The brutalisation of Reece Topley continues. His three overs have gone for 15, 11 and now 14, which gives him figures of 3-0-40-0.
Fraser-McGurk muscled his first ball over cover for six, despite an admirable attempt from Jacob Bethell to at least save the boundary, then Inglis swivel-pulled a sweet boundary to long leg.
11th over: Australia 103-2 (Fraser-McGurk 40, Inglis 2) Liam Livingstone makes a solid start, conceding no boundaries in his first over. Fraser-McGurk did play one high-class shot, inside out through extra cover, that was stopped on the boundary. He’s more than just a baseball slugger.
“Has Punter been on the sauce?” asks Mel Fleming. “He’s rabbiting nineteen to the dozen on Sky.”
Our legal team would like us to stress that the only sauce he has been anywhere near today had an unmistakable whiff of Tabasco. It’s just his enthusiasm – everyone loves cricket but Punter adores it.
10th over: Australia 96-2 (Fraser-McGurk 34, Inglis 1) Fraser-McGurk makes room to lash Carse square of the wicket for four, the first boundary Carse has conceded from his 13th delivery.
Carse recovers pretty well to concede five from the last five deliveries, three of which were chipped jauntily over extra cover by the impressive Fraser-McGurk. He has 34 from 20 balls and, though he hasn’t been in IPL beast mode, you can see what the fuss is about.
Carse has also been very good; I can’t remember him bowling better than this for England. Given the state of my memory, this isn’t necessarily a huge compliment.
9th over: Australia 87-2 (Fraser-McGurk 26, Inglis 0)
WICKET! Australia 87-2 (Short b Rashid 28)
Adil Rashid strikes. He was smashed for a straight six by Fraser-McGurk earlier in the over, but he has just bowled Matthew Short with a classic googly. Short, who had violence in mind, was beaten all ends up to conclude a relatively laboured innings of 28 from 24 balls.
8th over: Australia 77-1 (Short 27, Fraser-McGurk 17) Carse changes ends to replace Curran. This is the most exciting time of his career, back from his ban and in the Test squad to tour Pakistan, and his second over is another good one. Australia score off every ball but there are no boundaries and only seven runs in all. “His pace variation is outstanding,” says Ricky Ponting on commentary.
7th over: Australia 70-1 (Short 22, Fraser-McGurk 15) Adil Rashid starts with his usual brilliance. Just three singles from the over, which included three consecutive dot balls to a slightly befuddled Fraser-McGurk.
6th over: Australia 67-1 (Short 20, Fraser-McGurk 14) Sam Curran, who was pulverised at Southampton on Wednesday, gets back on the horse. Today his first over goes for 14. Fraser-McGurk slams three consecutive boundaries, all belters: a drive over mid-off, a baseball shot over mid-on and a hold-the-pose extra cover drive all along the floor.
“The consistency with which Australia keeps producing stunning talents is worth studying and, if possible, copying,” writes Krishnamoorthy V. “Head is like Smith on steroids.”
Talking of which, many happy returns to a man who would have been a helluva T20 player: Robin Arnold Smith is 61 today.
5th over: Australia 53-1 (Short 19, Fraser-McGurk 1) Carse rushes Fraser-McGurk, then beats Short for pace. That’s a terrific first over: two runs and one Brobdingnagian wicket.
“Just to speed up England’s T20 internationals,” begins Kevin Wilson, “can we just start the opposition on 72-0 from the Powerplay and then England can actually turn up?”
72 for one, please.
WICKET! Australia 52-1 (Head c Rashid b Carse 31)
Brydon Carse replaces Topley, who misses a run-out chance from short fine leg with Head well short. It doesn’t matter because Head slugs the next ball straight to Rashid at cover point to end another brutal cameo of 31 from 14 balls. Carse, back in the side for the first time since his ban, has struck with his second ball.
4th over: Australia 51-0 (Short 19, Head 31) Head does superbly to drag an awkward short ball from Mahmood round the corner for four; then a helicopter shot teases the man at deep square before dropping short.
I swear Mahmood is bowling well but he’s still going the distance. Short slices a big drive over the slips for four, misses a slower cutter and heaves another short ball for a single. Head backs away to swat the last delivery over short third for four; he is the most remarkable player and has vroomed to 31 off 13 balls.
3rd over: Australia 37-0 (Short 14, Head 22) Head check-drives Topley’s first ball over long-on for a marvellous six, holding the pose at the end of his follow through. A deliberate steer over short third moves him into the twenties after only eight balls. Once again Topley ends the over pretty well, with only one run from the last four deliveries, but overall it’s been another cracking start for Australia.
You know it’s coming, I know it’s coming.
2nd over: Australia 26-0 (Short 14, Head 11) Saqib Mahmood has the dubious privilege of bowling to Travis Head. It’s a really good first over – yet it still goes for 11. Mahmood bowled a Spandex-tight line, not giving Head much chance to free his arms. A top-edged pull looped over short fine leg for four, then Head launched an overpitched delivery down the ground for six. The straight boundaries are very short at Sophia Gardens.
1st over: Australia 15-0 (Short 14, Head 0) Reece Topley’s first over disappears for 15. It started promisingly for England, with Short surviving a huge LBW appeal when an inswinger pitched just outside leg. Then, after a leg-side wide, he got stuck into Topley. Short pulled six out of the ground, edged four over the head of short third man and punched another boundary through mid-off. It could have been worse for England; Topley finished the over with consecutive dot balls.
It’s a lovely, sunny evening in Cardiff. Travis Head, captaining Australia for the first time, is about to smash England to all parts (possibly).
“I guess this is all just a bit of end-of-season fun/shameless money spinner (delete as applicable) so we just take it as that,” says Guy Hornsby. “But it seems very odd persisting with Jamie Overton as a batting only No.7. He’s a really talent but if the top 3 fail we look at least a better short, and that hurt us in the first game. Penny for other No.6/7s going around’s thoughts. Who would you have in there? But then what the hell do I know!”
I quite like Overton in there, as it’s such a specialist position and England have really struggled to find somebody. I think he’s worth a look.
Team news: Carse in for Archer
England bring Brydon Carse for Jofra Archer, whose workload is being managed. Australia bring in Jake Fraser-McGurk, Cooper Connolly and Aaron Hardie for Marsh, Josh Hazlewood and the injured Xavier Bartlett.
England Salt (c/wk), Jacks, Cox, Livingstone, Bethell, S Curran, C Overton, Carse, Rashid, Mahmood, Topley.
Australia Short, Head (c), Fraser-McGurk, Inglis (wk), Stoinis, David, Green, Hardie, Connolly, Abbott, Zampa.
England win the toss and bowl
Travis Head, who is deputising for the unwell Mitch Marsh, calls incorrectly and is invited to bat first by Phil Salt. He’s a brave man.
There was one silver lining for England in the first T20 international, a fine allround performance from Liam Livingstone. Here’s what he made of it all.
Preamble
And so to Cardiff, where England need to win to keep the T20 series against Australia alive. Not that this little slice bilateral goodness is about winning and losing; it’s about… well, whatever you want it to be.
For many the most interesting aspect is the inclusion of young players on both sides: Jordan Cox, Jacob Bethell, Xavier Bartlett and maybe Cooper Connolly.
It’s also another chance to watch the astonishing Travis Head, whose riotous 23-ball 59 settled Wednesday’s game inside the first six overs. And even if it is diluted, it’s still England v Australia. There are and will always be worse ways to spend a Friday night.
