Shane Watson
Andrew Strauss would have certainly thought during the innings exchange break that England would manage to take a 1-0 lead without much difficulty, only to be proven wrong by an innings which he himself calls “one of the great one day innings”.
Having won the toss England chose to bat first. With a good knock from Steve Davis (42) and Strauss (63) , England got a solid start. With the fall of Davis’s wicket Trott (6) came to the crease but could not hold on much as he was caught behind the wicket off Hussey’s bowling.
Pieterson who came in next played a much required innings which included 3 sixes. He scored a smooth 78 off 75 deliveries before being run out by Johnson. At this point England seemed to be in some trouble, but with some risky shots from Bresnan (28) England reached a competitive 294 at the end of 49.4 overs. To add to the good batting from England was the sloppy fielding and errant bowling from Australia that took England to the 290 plus mark.
This score also happened to be England’s highest total versus Australia in Australia as well as the highest total by them in MCG.
Australia started their innings rather too well, with the opening partnership of 110 between Haddin and Shane Watson at the end 19.4 overs. Watson was then joined by Aussie captain Michael Clarke (36) who was quite defensive in his approach and at a given point in time was booed by the crowd, as the asking rate went up to 8 an over.
Watson made up for the rate by hitting a few sixes and rotated the strike well. He was supported well by Hussey (21 of 15 balls) who came in next. Finally with the help of Cameron White who scored a 25 of 23 deliveries Australia secured victory, with five deliveries and six wickets to spare.
Watson made up for the reckless bowling by Australian bowlers, which had resulted in them bowling 12 wides, as well as 3 stumpings missed by Haddin. A few days back Australian Selector Greg Chappell had said that Watson is the key for Australia to win the World Cup. Certainly by his rocking innings of 161 n.o. he has proved that he deserves every word spoken by Chappell.
Australia play their 2nd ODI against England in Hobart on the 21st of January.
Tags: 1st ODI, Ajmal Shehzad, Australia, Commonwealth Bank Series, Cricket, England, MCG, Melbourne, ODI Series, Shane Watson
