For both Travis Head and the Australian cricket hierarchy, the team’s commanding six-wicket win over England at the Adelaide Oval could hardly have gone better.
Not only was a second-string English attack comfortably dispatched to run down a target of 288 set up almost single-handedly by a sublime century from Dawid Malan with 19 balls to spare; but Head’s brisk 69 as part of a 147-run stand with David Warner (86) at better than 7 runs per over has officially locked him in as Aaron Finch’s replacement at the top of the order.
There are still nearly 12 months until the first ball is bowled in India for the 2023 World Cup, but Head, given first chance to partner Warner after a dominant Marsh Cup last summer, couldn’t have done more to make it his spot to lose.
Positives weren’t hard to find for Australia, though, notwithstanding significantly lower stakes than at any point in their ill-fated T20 World Cup campaign. Steve Smith (80 not out) was at his brilliant best and appeared to benefit from a slightly altered stance, his cover drive dazzling early and bringing up the winning runs with a six off Malan.
For England, a bowling attack shorn of World Cup champions Sam Curran, Adil Rashid, Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali plus Mark Wood never looked likely to slow the Aussies down, while with the bat only Malan’s sparkling 128-ball 134 helped guide them to a total that at least looked competitive at the change of innings.
Perhaps the Australians’ greatest concern will be the efforts of a virtually full-strength bowling attack: Adam Zampa was typically excellent in the middle overs while Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins found life in the Adelaide Oval pitch early to leave England 3/31, but all looked powerless to stop Malan.
Only Josh Hazlewood was absent from the attack that will likely form the centrepiece of Australia’s ODI World Cup charge next year, and with eyes beginning to turn to the upcoming Test series against first the West Indies and then South Africa, it wouldn’t surprise for Starc and possibly Cummins too to be rested for one of the next two.
Skipper Cummins, though, started his ODI tenure the same way as his Test captaincy did: with a resounding win over England. His first wicket, a perfect back of a length delivery that Phil Salt could only edge to Smith at slip, showed the superstar quick is more than ready to put a difficult T20 World Cup behind him in the longer formats.
A similar delivery proved far too good for James Vince as well, feathering an edge to Alex Carey behind; in the middle, Starc found swing to splatter Jason Roy’s stumps, the ball good enough to make the left-armer’s omission for the World Cup clash with Afghanistan look even sillier than it already was.
In the midst of it all stood Malan, player of the match in a team soundly beaten, who seemed keen to perform having missed out on England’s World Cup triumph with a groin injury sustained late in the group stages.
On 42 when Jos Buttler fell to leave England 5/118, the left-hander was cautious and aggressive in equal measure, always keeping the run rate solid while rarely risking his wicket; a whipped six off Cummins about as expansive as he got.
Bringing up his century off 107 balls, Malan finally found a willing ally in David Willey; together, the pair muscled 60 runs off just 50 balls to rescue England from the brink. The latter’s power hitting was a perfect match for Malan’s deft placement, and the partnership would have been more if not for a stunning piece of fielding from Agar, leaping at full stretch to pluck the ball one-handed and throw back in play while still in mid-air.
It followed an equally impressive effort to run out Liam Dawson with a direct hit from point; while not batting and unusually expensive with ball in hand, the multi-faceted Western Australian proved his value to the team with that pair of efforts alone.
Malan fell eventually trying to heave Zampa over long on, but Willey, despite just two boundaries from the final five overs, ensured 28 were put on with tailenders Luke Wood and Olly Stone; but 287, especially with the Adelaide Oval pitch likely to be easier to bat on under lights, felt 20 to 30 light.
Those fears were realised from the moment Head, with full knowledge of the shorter square boundaries at his home ground, took on Stone with a pull shot that comfortably cleared the boundary over deep mid-wicket.
Dynamite on anything short or wide, Head continued his love affair with the English on these shores – having claimed the Compton-Miller Medal as the player of last year’s Ashes with two stellar centuries, he is well on his way to solidifying his spot in the ODI line-up too.
Making things easier, though, were the efforts of Warner, so conspicuously out of runs if not necessarily form during the T20 World Cup.
Scooping the pace of Willey over fine leg for six was the surest sign ever the left-hander was back in business; together with Head, they dished out the sort of treatment England usually hand out themselves at the top of the order.
With Stone gifting Warner another boundary with a disastrous bit of fielding, the ball sneaking through his legs and into the rope, the pair seemed unstoppable. And so they were, until Head tried one pull too many, failing to clear Salt at deep forward square off Chris Jordan.
All that did, though, was bring Smith to the wicket; having lost his place in Australia’s first-choice T20I line-up, he batted as if determined to not suffer the same fate in the 50-over team.
Particularly noteworthy was his sparkling cover drive; far stiller at the crease than in the past, he used the covers sublimely off the quicks, and used his feet to the spin of Dawson like the Smith of old.
“I’m just standing a lot stiller, not moving as much, every now and again if I kind of want to, but keeping myself side-on,” Smith said during play.
“I think when I’m playing cover drives like those and getting my weight back through the ball, that’s when I know I’m hitting it well.”
The only concern in Australia’s chase was the lack of runs for number four Marnus Labuschagne, who will surely face pressure from Mitchell Marsh for this spot in the line-up; he mustered just 4 before a sensational one-handed catch from Buttler behind the stumps spelled his doom.
With Warner having fallen shortly before, picking out deep backward square off Willey as well for 86, the Aussies lost 3/44 once Alex Carey reverse-swept Dawson to point.
But undeterred, Smith would shepherd Cameron Green through to the end of the innings, the all-rounder able to bat his way into some form with 20 off 28 balls as Smith moved up through the gears.
Finishing in style with a four and a six off Dawson, the run chase could hardly have been more impressive from Australia. Conditions will get harder, and bowling attacks more challenging, but as a first block in the foundation of next year’s World Cup, there are more than enough positives out of which the Aussies can continue to build.
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