Rousing victory squares the series as new-look team channels a familiar aggression of old
Vithushan Ehantharajah27-Sep-2024England striking at eight an over. A baying Lord’s crowd hooked on Jofra Archer’s thunderbolts, aimed in Australia’s direction. Lord’s on Friday felt a lot like a 2019 tribute.What days those were, by the way. Pre-pandemic, hot summers, Oasis still broken up, and England not just ODI world champions under Eoin Morgan, but setting the standard in white-ball cricket.A lot has changed in five years, and not all of it for the better. But this fourth ODI, for one night only, at close to Gallagher reunion prices, was a remake of old-world excellence with a new-age cast. And though it was only 39 overs a side, in conditions that showed the cricket season should have ended weeks ago, this was a dominance from a previous era. England’s victory by 186 runs was their second-largest by runs against Australia – the reigning 50-over world champions, by the way, who still boasted nine of the XI from that November 2023 final. “That was a pretty special performance,” Harry Brook, England’s stand-in captain, said, after his team had drawn level despite Australia storming to a 2-0 lead. “All bases were covered there tonight.”Brook himself led the way with the bat, top-scoring with 87 from just 58 deliveries, off the back of an unbeaten 110 in Durham. His fourth fifty-plus score in the format was his standout of the season – “it’s definitely the best I’ve hit it this summer” – even if it was superseded by Liam Livingstone’s bombast.Livingstone’s 25-ball fifty warmed English cockles, particularly when he blitzed Mitchell Starc’s final over of the first innings for four sixes and a last-ball four. The left-arm seamer, a modern-day great with the white ball, now has the ignominy of holding the record for the most expensive men’s ODI over delivered by an Australian.That late flurry was a contrast to a watchful start. Josh Hazlewood opened from the Nursery End with a maiden as he kept Ben Duckett and Phil Salt quiet enough to ensure just three fours were struck in the eight-over powerplay. Quite how the wicket column remained unmoved was anyone’s guess.But England emerged from this passage keen to make that luck count. Even as Salt and Will Jacks fell in the space of 25 deliveries, the shift through the gears was smooth and devastating. Brook was the main conduit, but Duckett’s 30 off 20 in their stand of 79 (the left-hander eventually dismissed for 63) and Jamie Smith’s contribution of 30 from 22 in a fourth-wicket stand of 75 off 47 perfectly encapsulated the partnership batting that, five years ago, fast-tracked England to the top of the limited-overs mountain.Matthew Potts was in the wickets during a stellar performance from England’s quicks•Getty ImagesAs was often the case back then, the clinical nature of England’s batting was encapsulated in the target of their assault. Adam Zampa has been integral to Australia’s white-ball success over the last four years, and so, in typical prison-yard fashion, the hosts decided to take him down. The legspinner finished his eight-over allocation with two wickets, but having conceded 66 runs; an economy rate of 8.25 marking his spell as the fifth-most expensive of the 97 ODI innings in which he has bowled five or more overs. It had been a plan three weeks in the making.”I wasn’t here for the T20s, but I think they spoke about trying to attack him as much as possible and trying to put him under a lot of pressure,” Brook said. “And we’re just taking it into the 50-over games, to be honest.”We haven’t let him just settle into a length. I think we’ve used our feet really well and accessed parts of the ground which we’re capable of getting boundaries in. I think we’ve done really well against him.”Sean Abbott was another casualty. His 0 for 62 was an accurate representation of seven overs of struggle, which only served to highlight the need for a Plan B beyond Zampa and the value of Pat Cummins.With 312 on the board – “way over” Brook’s initial ambition after losing the toss – England were always favourites going into the second innings. But when Travis Head carted Brydon Carse out of the ground for the penultimate ball of the seventh over that went for 19, the match was shifting. And then England’s quicks bent it back their way by claiming nine of Australia’s 10 wickets, all of which fell for just 58 runs.If the pitch changed in character over the course of Australia’s innings, then England seized the moment in a remarkable spell of seam bowling from Carse, Archer and Matthew Potts. The four wickets to Potts – including Steven Smith for the second time this series – gave him the most eye-catching figures. But it was Archer and Carse who vied for the best dismissal of the evening.The former’s leg-cutter to flatten Mitchell Marsh’s off stump perhaps came second to the latter’s nip down the slope from a good length to do the same to Marnus Labuschagne’s. But in playing back-to-back ODIs for the first time since this latest return from his elbow issues, Archer claimed more of the limelight.Related
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From the Super Over in that stunning final against New Zealand, to that face-meltingly quick display in the second Ashes Test, so much of the 2019 summer was defined by Archer’s exploits at Lord’s. His manipulation of the white ball was the stand-out aspect of his display, but the wow moment was the brisk rising delivery that clocked Labuschagne on the arm, evoking memories of the blow to the helmet that he inflicted on the same batter in that second Ashes Test – a moment that only came about after Labuschagne had entered the contest as a concussion substitute for Smith, whom Archer had felled in the first innings.”It’s pretty good to watch, isn’t it, when he’s swinging it and seaming around,” Brook said. “Hopefully he can be around for a while.”Naturally, when these two teams meet in anything other than an Ashes contest, the Ashes always comes up. And after a comprehensive victory set in motion by batters already established in the Test team, and finished by a pace attack vying to break back into that XI, you can forgive the extrapolation. Particularly at the end of a summer that began with the pensioning-off of James Anderson with that 2025-26 tour of Australia in mind.The reality, however, is that this is an Australian team who have been afflicted with illness and knocks. They are, to a man, ready for home ahead of a blockbuster summer of their own. Even this result may be moot if the forecast for Sunday’s decider in Bristol plays out.But as far as England’s 50-over ambitions are concerned, this was an evening to savour. And perhaps the best compliment to pay is that the future looks brighter off the back of a performance bearing hallmarks of the past.