Ain’t no mountain high enough,
Ain’t no valley low enough,
Ain’t no river wide enough
For years, in ODI cricket, the chances of teams getting bowled out cheaply was always a possibility. But it was at the other end of the spectrum that there remained a limit.
England’s record-breaking rout of Australia on Tuesday, though, has thrown most of these assumptions out of the window. By scoring 481 in 50 overs at Trent Bridge, the Englishmen have raised the bar to new level. The fact that they reached the total despite having played 107 dot balls only adds weight to the notion that the day a 500-plus total is scored in an ODI innings isn’t too far away.
Through the years, while scores have risen higher, achieving totals at 10 runs an over through 50 overs seemed too stiff to pull off. It’s not a matter of being a non-believer. Rather, it’s the variables at play during a course of a one-day match that have traditionally ruled out such bold aspirations.
Those variables, though, failed to prove much of a hurdle for England’s Alex Hales and Jonny Bairstow as they notched up impressive tons to steer their side to an improbable total.
The venue helped. Trent Bridge is the same ground where the Englishmen posted the previous record ODI score – 444/3 against Pakistan in 2016. Considered to be one of the smallest grounds in the country, high scores are quite common here. The team rewrote its own record on Tuesday.
The wicket seemed to be as flat as it was two years ago. Where England got lucky, though, was Australia’s complete ill-preparedness for the current conditions. Injuries have left them low on ammunition. Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, as well as all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, are all out with various ailments.
Kane Richardson, with 15 ODIs, is their most experienced bowler on the tour. T20 star Andrew Tye and Ben Stanlake make up the pace department, while left-arm spinner Ashton Agar is their go to slow bowler.
With all three bowlers yet to make a lasting impression with the ball on the international stage, expectations were never high. But they were never this low either.
While Richardson and Stanlake conceded over nine runs an over, Tye gave away 100 runs in the nine overs he bowled. Agar came away from the tie after giving away 70 runs in nine overs.
The remaining overs were bowled between Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell, Aaron Finch and D’Arcy Short.
Lessons from India
With powerplays and the new-ball rules, batsmen do have their opportunities of scoring big runs. Keeping the game moving is priority with Twenty20 becoming a more entertaining avenue for fans to turn to for their cricket fix.
While some teams have resigned to the fact that batsmen will score big thanks to the rules, others have found ways to turn it on its head. India is exhibit A. The Virat Kohli-led side no longer relies on part-timers to bowl the middle overs.
Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal have a penchant for wreaking havoc in this period. Their effectiveness during India’s tour of South Africa proved game-changing. Not only did they snap the run-flow in this spell, but were taking wickets aplenty. The legs-spinners’ ability to find turn on the hard wickets kept India ahead of the curve so to speak.
The decision by many franchises to go for leg-spinners in the just-concluded Indian Premier League more or less lies in the success of the duo against the Proteas.
By employing leg-spinners during the spell, the skipper challenges the opposition batsmen to go after the bowling. Containment is never the priority.
Australia used a combination of different bowlers in this period. Tye, Stoinis, Richardson... all tried their hand at restricting the batsmen. Agar was the most economical of the lot, but Bairstow and Hales did not struggle to decipher his bowling. Australia soon employed the part-timers. Stoinis bowled as many as eight overs. Obviously, containment was his key objective and he failed.
Incidentally, it was in England that India first realised their folly. The spin duo of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja had failed miserably in the middle overs of the Champions Trophy. India would end up conceding big totals leaving their batsmen with a lot to do. In the final, Pakistan would hand India a target of 339 to chase. The Pakistan batsmen went after the bowling in the middle overs, where Ashwin and Jadeja struggled to find purchase off the English hard wickets.
Fortunately for India, a solution was not far away. This, though, isn’t true for every other team yet. Australia have already lost the five-match series 3-0. They have batted first twice now. They let England post 342/8 in the second ODI before being part of a new record in the third game.
They are quickly realising the value of what India did last year. Having attacking bowlers through the 50 overs is key in this day and age, when batsmen are attuned to the T20 brand of aggressive gameplay are always on the look out for runs.
If not for those dot balls and with the addition of a couple more attack-minded batsmen, England could well have surpassed 500 on Tuesday.
With the ODI World Cup set to be hosted in England next year, a mammoth total would be widely expected. Australia, who will be chasing an unprecedented sixth World Cup title, seem out of touch. Rocked by controversy, their focus is obviously on more deeper behavioural alterations rather than preparation for a World Cup.
Their lack of preparedness for the changing dynamics of ODI cricket a year before the World Cup is alarming.
Unearthing World Cup-ready leg-spinners is obviously not a straightforward task. Chahal and Kuldeep are still untested in England. They too are a work-in-progress despite their success in similar conditions. India, though, have shown pro-activeness on this front keeping in mind the 2019 World Cup. From Tuesday’s result, it appears Australia aren’t on the same page.
The rout on Tuesday should come as a reminder for the defending champions that cricket can be quite punishing if one takes their eye off the ball.
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