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Here is Tom van der Gucht.
“In many ways, I’m most excited about tomorrow’s England v England Lions game. The opportunity for young up-and-comers to make a mark is always exciting and I still remember the excitement of the Lions beating the senior team ahead of the 2010 T20 World Cup, which led to a complete change in personnel, management and tactic”.
He writes to me in Newcastle. “Congratulations to Travis Head on the 100 aside, what’s more pointless than this ODI series? How about a frisbee? That doesn’t have points either. What makes more sense? How about the Canadian Football League’s 109th Gray Cup that did toronto win over the weekend?
Well, I would direct people back to the Sam Billings interview at the start of the blog for some pointers for the players ahead of next year’s World Cup. As for the Gray Cup, that doesn’t sound very colorful. Well done Toronto – if my very distant understanding is correct, they haven’t been swimming in titles with the Blue Jays, Raptors, Leafs and the like.
It’s raining again. Just a light rain, but it will be enough to take some time and probably cost us a bit too much. Wonder what Duckworth and Lewis will make of things if Australia’s innings is reduced now? And that’s before old pal Stern gets involved.
42nd over: Australia 290-2 (Smith 10, Stoinis 11) Woakes runs away with a length, hoping to use the big square boundaries as protection or a wicket-taking device. Smith backs up and misses a jab, then steps away and plays the forehand over the top! He only gets one run, to mid off, but I remember him playing it in 2014 when he made that 192 against India batting for the declaration runs. No boundaries from the end, just five singles, well played.
41st over: Australia 285-2 (Smith 8, Stoinis 8) Dancing shoes for Smith, who hops outside leg and cuts Dawson for four. Also a bit of a run in two. Three side boundary runners for Stoinis, who is not yet ready to play any big shots. Makes a run past the bowler to keep the strike.
40th: Australia 276-2 (Smith 3, Stoinis 4) Woakes is back. He has had as much success against Smith as anyone can claim to have had. Wondering if it’s a planned rotation or a tactical move? He has three envelopes left. Bowls four sixes to Stoinis.
Phil Withall watches from behind the sofa. “As an Englishman, the disappointment of this Aussie entry is only compounded by the gap on the weather radar. I see no hope there…”
39th over: Australia 270-2 (Smith 1, Stoinis 0) Interesting that Smith gets three but Stoinis rises above Labuschagne. Two goals and a run from the Stone!
WICKET! Not out b Stone 152, Australia 270-2
And one brings two! Heads away towards the leg side, looking to play through or over cover. Stone may have time to follow him a touch. The line of the ball is just outside leg touch and it cuts the outside edge of the wood after Head’s shot misses. This brightens Olly Stone’s day a touch. I’m not sure he’ll go about 2 for 66 in his eighth, but it’s better than not getting them.
WICKET! Warner c Willey b Stone 106, Australia 269-1
Eventually, the partnership breaks up. Olly Stone has become a slot-ready bowling machine, but he’s got a lucky break. Warner pulls to the deep side, hits the gap between the two fielders quite well, but just has too much lift or not enough depth in the stroke, and Willey is able to recover a lot of ground parallel to the trajectory and get a wonderful catch.
38th over: Australia 269-0 (Head 152, Warner 106) Even Curran departs, with Head flicking it down the leg side through midwicket and then to the other side of the wicket through cover, both length balls that the batsman could field himself. to attack by changing position.
Century! David Warner 101 off 97 balls
37th over: Australia 257-0 (Head 143, Warner 103) Goodness. Travis Head is just pumping them right now. Stone comes back, first ball after cups, and Head bowls it long over the rope. Cut another boundary over the non-existent cord. Takes a two and one, hits Warner and Stone gives him an absolute gift, a low full toss with width, perfect for Warner to redirect through cover for four!
This is Warner’s 19th ODI century, taking him ahead of Mark Waugh and only behind Ricky Ponting’s 29 for his country.
And Stone’s over has gone for 19.
36th over: Australia 239-0 (Head 130, Warner 97) A strange boundary from Curran, glancing through fine leg. This pair still runs the second as hard as they did 36 overs ago as Warner places the ball in the deep. Warner has been outside the 90s four times before in ODI cricket. He goes on strike. Curran bowls past Head, has to hit a free and gives away just one run to deep point. Even today he is the only England bowler to go less than six for an over. Drinks.
35th over: Australia 228-0 (Head 129, Warner 90) It’s Richie Benaud who’s done, the 35th over. This old rule of thumb no longer works. But let’s just say Australia is on the way to… a lot of things. And England’s only chance of pulling them back is if they try too hard and lose a bunch of wickets too quickly. Another six for Head, stepping well outside leg and down the pitch to Dawson, contorting himself into a weird pretzel shape as he hits a long-on ball over the midwicket. Shades of Rishabh Pant in this one.
34th over: Australia 217-0 (Head 120, Warner 88) Curran has been useful so far, he’ll have some deaths to manage too, one thinks. Try the yorker, try the slow bounce, anything to make a mistake, but these batsmen keep piling up.
33rd over: Australia 212-0 (Head 118, Warner 86) Head charges at Dawson, eventually runs out of space and gets a single. Warner walks to the bowler to check a trip to mid-off. Batting sparingly, I had time to do so. In the first match, he fell short of a hundred and will not want to do it again. The head goes hard on Dawson’s last ball but Woakes saves it to the straight boundary. At some point, this entrance will be lit up and everyone will be free to swing.
Updated at 06.22 GMT
32nd over: Australia 206-0 (Head 114, Warner 83) There’s the pair of 200, the second time they’ve done it in 13 innings together. They reached Australia’s record ODI 284 last time out. They take a single from each ball from Willey’s over, plus a wide. England looking flat.
Updated at 06.40 GMT
31st over: Australia 199-0 (Head 111, Warner 80) Nothing outrageous against Dawson, Warner trusting the placement and running to score four from the end, Cap happy to hit square leg.
30th over: Australia 194-0 (Head 110, Warner 76) Run rate now up 6.5, they have bowled out 38 in the last four overs. And we’re not even in the innings batting phase yet. Willey manages to conjure a silence into existence, still six of it. Dawson is about to make a comeback.
29th over: Australia 188-0 (Head 108, Warner 74) Head plays his first at-bat after the ton, high but just over enough to clear mid-on. It connects for a single. This is the second ball of the over. From the sixth over, Head gets the cleanest shot, hitting Woakes flat and outside this fielder for four.
We’re crossing genres! Terrestrial announcement / OBO coverage.
28th over: Australia 180-0 (Head 101, Warner 73) Ton is up, he’s had fun, but it’s Warner who decides to go big. Willey comes on to replace the struggling Stone, and Warner bowls his first ball from long on, exactly where he hit Dawson. Six. He then closes the end by lobbing a shorter ball over Buttler and outside off for four. Warner wants to catch up?
Century! Travis Head 100 off 91 balls
27 overs: Australia 168-0 (Head 100, Warner 62) A very sad-sounding trumpeter plays We Are the Champions, with all the gusto of a deflated balloon. And Travis Head adds the final punch, pop, by nicking World Cup winner Woakes at a backward point for four and for his century.
This is his third for Australia, as well as nine others in List A cricket. He likes the 50-plus format, for sure. He applied his buccaneer style to this game, had some problems early on, but just ignored it and kept cruising. By now it seems completely under control.
26 overs: Australia 161-0 (Head 95, Warner 60) Simple approach, and it’s still working today. Travis Head walks into this delivery from Stone, hitting it a length over the bowler’s head, with a straight bat. four He tries to thread an uppercut through the empty area by the keeper and the keeper misses. But if you don’t get it at first…next ball, same ball, same shot, full face on the keeper, bat pointing back towards the boundary line. top shot
25th over: Australia 150-0 (Head 86, Warner 58) Moeen takes care of some of the sparse fans on the ground, taking selfies on the boundary between overs. Chris Woakes has the ball now from the Shane Warne End, England increasingly desperate for a breakthrough. No risks against the main man, but Head again uses that trick of moving outside off and looking well for four. The rain hasn’t cost us at all so it’s halfway through the innings and Australia should be thinking 300+ by now.
24th over: Australia 143-0 (Head 81, Warner 56) Travis Head keeps going! Stone is playing a bit quicker now, trying a short toss attack, but Head hits it back down the ground for four, then cuts it to deep third for a couple. Without fear.
23rd over: Australia 135-0 (Head 75, Warner 55) Peace of mind for Dawson, on the other hand, four singles but a couple of well-hit shots to the boundary runners. Buttler’s audacity to keep him, this is a test of nerve. For the bowler and the…