By The Telegraph (World News) | Created at 2024-09-29 09:25:28 | Updated at 2024-09-30 05:21:47
20 hours ago
Welcome to our coverage of the fifth, final and deciding One Day International between England and Australia at Bristol. Things were looking fairly bleak for Harry Brook’s men early on in the series as they tumbled to a 2-0 deficit after the first two games. Yet a fine victory in Durham and a thumping one (England’s second largest ODI win by runs over the old enemy) on Friday at Lord’s have, thankfully, taken this series down to the wire. With autumn well and truly here that and that does at least add a little heat to a game taking place on the last Sunday in September. A dead rubber in inclement conditions might have been a bit too much.
England’s white-ball teams have felt in transition for a little while now an that is especially the case with the 50-over side. It is now five years since their World Cup victory, and their performances have been inconsistent and scratchy for a little while now. Will incoming white-ball coach Brendon McCullum, who takes up the job in January, be able to change that?
Talent-wise England have the makings of a dangerous side, as the last two games have shown. Harry Brook followed up his maiden ODI century with a rapid 87 on Friday, taking his run tally in the series to 240 at 80. Matthew Potts and Brydon Carse have both taken seven wickets whilst Liam Livingstone is scoring his runs at a strike-rate of nearly 170 in the series. Before their two losses, Australia had won 13 ODIs in a row. They have not become a bad side overnight despite the 186-run mauling at Lord’s. In other words it is all set up nicely.
And what about that weather? A couple of days ago and the forecast would not have given you much hope for a game being started, let alone completed. As it stands the conditions, according to the Met Office, means there should be some kind of game on. With an earlier scheduled start time than Friday, the bulk of the rain is not expected to arrive in Bristol until the late afternoon. Unfortunately once it arrives it is unlikely to disappear again.
The question, then, will be whether the side batting first can complete their innings and then the chasing side get through enough overs to constitute a game. Given the series poised at 2-2 it would be a shame if there was a 50-over first innings and then just 15 overs before the rain came, with no further play.
