Australia v England, 2nd T20, MCG

Australia:
AJ Finch, CL White, BJ Hodge, GJ Maxwell, GJ Bailey*, CA Lynn, MS Wade†, MA Starc, NM Coulter-Nile, JR Hazlewood, JM Muirhead

England:
AD Hales, MJ Lumb, LJ Wright, JE Root, EJG Morgan, JC Buttler†, RS Bopara, TT Bresnan, SCJ Broad*, JW Dernbach, JC Tredwell

England won the toss and elected to bat

Brad Hodge and Mitchell Starc replace Henriques and Christian for Australia.

Tredwell replaces Danny Briggs for England.

Alex Hales dropped by Maxwell off the bowling of Starc.

England 24/0 after 3 overs.

Lumb skies one off Hazlewood and is caught by Coulter-Nile.

An absolute screamer of a catch by Hodge to dismiss Wright.

30/2 after 4.2.

Another skied catch for Starc on the fine leg boundary and Hales is gone for 16 runs.
England 42/3 after 6 overs.

Morgan nearly run out...

Hmmm, given out.
I thought his bat was grounded crossing through the line.

England 60/4 after 8 overs.

Now we're getting whooped by a 39 year old.

Brilliant throw to Wade from Maxwell. Root not quick enough and was easily run out. 63/5 now.

Olly wrote:Now we're getting whooped by a 39 year old.

Good move to bring him back. He deserves some more of the spotlight. He's scored the most runs in this form of the game.

Eng 78/5 after 11.

His foot was down. Move on.

Muirhead strikes. Great to see another leggie getting a few wickets of late.

So Bopara has to depart. England 87/6 after 12.2

Brilliant again from the England cricketing machine!

Lethal bowling (pace and spin) backed up by some brilliant fielding. The Aussies are so on their game!

Bopara makes cheap runs....not when it matters

Eng need a miracle here to get their second win of the tour

Yes, Aussies have played well I will give you that. A big part of winning in professional sport is seeing a weakness then exploiting it, blood was scented from Day 2 of the Test series and there has been no let up since. Its a ruthless business!
 
An fine example of sustained excellence and intensity

The Aussie women routed the England "Roses" earlier on today. Eng 98/6 (20) Oz 99/3 (15.1)

The "Sheilas" were pretty ruthless even though the Ashes are already gone...  

and Holly Ferling looked hot and ruthless... along with Ellyse Perry.

I wouldn't mind seeing Starc on a plane to SA in a couple of weeks. We might need him over there. He looks in good form right now!

Wow... Josh Hazlewood 4/30.

England 130/9 in 20 overs.

No 6s in that innings. Must be some sort of record?

KP_fan wrote:Bopara makes cheap runs....not when it matters

Eng need a miracle here to get their second win of the tour

For once I find myself agreeing with KP_Fan re. Bopara

Well after I called for Luke Wright to be called up to the odi squad he's promptly failed miserably in the T20's.

I can only apologise to Luke for the jinx

Olly wrote:

KP_fan wrote:Bopara makes cheap runs....not when it matters

Eng need a miracle here to get their second win of the tour

For once I find myself agreeing with KP_Fan re. Bopara

Yep, cos the rest scored well.

Stella wrote:

Olly wrote:

KP_fan wrote:Bopara makes cheap runs....not when it matters

Eng need a miracle here to get their second win of the tour

For once I find myself agreeing with KP_Fan re. Bopara

Yep, cos the rest scored well.

Never said they did!

For the T20 world cup I'd like to see KP come in for Lumb (been pants, will struggle against spin in sub continent) and Stokes for Bopara.

Hopefully we'll also drop Dernbach at some point

Olly wrote:

Stella wrote:

Olly wrote:

KP_fan wrote:Bopara makes cheap runs....not when it matters

Eng need a miracle here to get their second win of the tour

For once I find myself agreeing with KP_Fan re. Bopara

Yep, cos the rest scored well.

Never said they did!

For the T20 world cup I'd like to see KP come in for Lumb (been pants, will struggle against spin in sub continent) and Stokes for Bopara.

Hopefully we'll also drop Dernbach at some point

Bopara is arguably our best T20 allrounder, and should be bowling more. One low score and it's knock ravi time. He's scored runs under pressure before, near the end of an innings, just had a bad day, so far.

Some great insights from Mike Hussey... talking about having energy in the field

"... run over here... then back over there... then go grab the Captain's cap... do anything... but keep moving!"  

6 Victorians today, Bill Lawry must be ecstatic!

Stella wrote:

Olly wrote:

Stella wrote:

Olly wrote:

KP_fan wrote:Bopara makes cheap runs....not when it matters

Eng need a miracle here to get their second win of the tour

For once I find myself agreeing with KP_Fan re. Bopara

Yep, cos the rest scored well.

Never said they did!

For the T20 world cup I'd like to see KP come in for Lumb (been pants, will struggle against spin in sub continent) and Stokes for Bopara.

Hopefully we'll also drop Dernbach at some point

Bopara is arguably our best T20 allrounder, and should be bowling more. One low score and it's knock ravi time. He's scored runs under pressure before, near the end of an innings, just had a bad day, so far.

If you can give me an example of when Bopara has finished off a game (in a positive way, not negative) I might change my mind...

For the second game running, Muirhead impressed me. Generally putting the ball in the right place and getting turn and bounce. Clearly a lot of self belief as well to have a slip in this format.

guildfordbat wrote:For the second game running, Muirhead impressed me. Generally putting the ball in the right place and getting turn and bounce. Clearly a lot of self belief as well to have a slip in this format.

Has a very nice action as well

Did you hear him talk just before, guildford?

Sounds like a very confident lad indeed. Maybe he'll become a household name soon? He has that air about him. That's great for Australian cricket.

Olly wrote:

Stella wrote:

Olly wrote:

Stella wrote:

Olly wrote:

KP_fan wrote:Bopara makes cheap runs....not when it matters

Eng need a miracle here to get their second win of the tour

For once I find myself agreeing with KP_Fan re. Bopara

Yep, cos the rest scored well.

Never said they did!

For the T20 world cup I'd like to see KP come in for Lumb (been pants, will struggle against spin in sub continent) and Stokes for Bopara.

Hopefully we'll also drop Dernbach at some point

Bopara is arguably our best T20 allrounder, and should be bowling more. One low score and it's knock ravi time. He's scored runs under pressure before, near the end of an innings, just had a bad day, so far.

If you can give me an example of when Bopara has finished off a game (in a positive way, not negative) I might change my mind...

I never said finish off a game, as in win it, but he scored some very handy late order runs in the CT last summer. Before that, I can't remember too much, but he has opened ona few occasions, which wasn't successful.

It's easy to knock him, but he's a very handy limited over player.

130 is a defendable score we have seen often times in IPL.....and the tone of 2nd inning is set by the first one applies here.

Eng should not lose heart yet...just get Finch and White quickly

Olly & Stella,
It was a very tight bowling performance. Apart from that strange experiment with Hodge bowling the 1st over (which went for 10) the rest of our bowling attack was very hard to score off and the other 6 of them all went for under 7.5 rpo.

Linebreaker wrote:Did you hear him talk just before, guildford?

Sounds like a very confident lad indeed. Maybe he'll become a household name soon? He has that air about him. That's great for Australian cricket.

Hi Linebreaker - no, I didn't hear him talking before. Not sure if that was on Sky - in any case, I've not really been able to watch any of the tv build up or subsequent analysis. Like you, I feel there is an air about him. I thought the same after the first game but wanted to holfd fire with any comments until seeing him again. Still don't want to go too far now but certainly very promising.

Finch out lbw to Bresnan.

Only 83 runs needed off just under 15 overs though.

Yes, precisely guildford. We can keep our hats on just for now.   

Maxwell holes out at deep backward square.

Australia 53/2 after 6.4 overs.

KP_fan wrote:130 is a defendable score we have seen often times in IPL.....and the tone of 2nd inning is set by the first one applies here.

Eng should not lose heart yet...just get Finch and White quickly

they got two quickly...if only they get White......thhey would have parity

I told ya......2nd inning follws the patttern of the first one generally

guildfordbat wrote:

Linebreaker wrote:Did you hear him talk just before, guildford?

Sounds like a very confident lad indeed. Maybe he'll become a household name soon? He has that air about him. That's great for Australian cricket.

Hi Linebreaker - no, I didn't hear him talking before. Not sure if that was on Sky - in any case, I've not really been able to watch any of the tv build up or subsequent analysis. Like you, I feel there is an air about him. I thought the same after the first game but wanted to holfd fire with any comments until seeing him again. Still don't want to go too far now but certainly very promising.

It was Mark Nicholas down on the ropes having a quick chat with Muirhead; just after the England innings, mate.
MN built him up of course... but the young kid was quite humble but with that kind of bravado in his voice (aka SKW).

He's only "seen" 3 Internationals - one in Sri Lanka... the other 2 he's played in himself this last week. He has a sound sporting mind too at such a young age. He appears so confident and driven and sounds even more self-assured.

He's from the other side of the Yarra to Warne though.
He has an Altona drawl... a tough working class bayside suburb but with plenty of cool cafes in recent years. 
Alfie will correct me if I'm wrong.   (cf. Warner from Matraville in Sydney)  

Bailey having one of those fine bludgeoning innings. Wish he would do it more often.
He seems in a hurry to finish things off now.

Australia 100/2... only 31 more runs needed.

well Eng had their moment...but couldn't pry out White

That was ridiculously easy for Australia.

I bet England can't wait to get out this hellhole... or have been waiting to do so for weeks now. Pity, because the weather is fantastic.

They should be enjoying it more but things are simply going from bad to worse.

To be fair LB, Bailey's record in the shorter formats is pretty amazing. He does do these kind of things reasonably often.

England never really in it. Knight made the point about reassessing very well - quite all right to go hard early on, and as such I would blame Lumb (his zone), Wright (played a good shot, just picked out a fielder who took a great catch) or even Hales (albeit he played across the line) that much. England's run rate was still good around 8, so the middle-order should have assessed the situation, milked for a few overs, made certain of 150 (which is competitive) and then tried to cash in at the death. The aim from 50odd for 3 should have been to get to 110-4 say off 15; that gives you a chance of 160-170.

I don't quite know what to make of Maxwell still. He does some extraordinary things on a cricket pitch whether with the bat, ball or in the field, but he does so many ridiculously stupid things as well. He's the kind of player you want to try to get into any team because of what he can do, but can quickly become a liability if the team isn't doing well. I do think he drives the side in the field though.

Apart from that Australia simply look a lot better than England in this form. England really miss an on-form Finn and Swann, because Dernbach is increasingly predictable.

Australia have to figure out what to do when Watson and Warner return. Hard to separate Finch and White at the moment, maybe Warner could slot in at 4 (where he did ok in the last IPL IIRC). Watson presumably will bat 3, so Bailey 5, Maxwell 6, Wade/Haddin 7, then whichever 4 bowlers; not entirely sure about Hazzlewood at the death TBH (I've watched a fair amount of the big bash, and he can go around the park then), but Starc looks back in form, and they have plenty of options.

Well done again Australia; you must be enjoying this Linebreaker, haha.

Just onder what England's mindset will be for the limited overs series' against the Windies and the T20 World Cup? New location equals a fresh start, or this is the worst trip I've ever been on and total calamity?

Is this the worst tour for England ever? Is this the low point of English cricket?

Mike Selig wrote:To be fair LB, Bailey's record in the shorter formats is pretty amazing. He does do these kind of things reasonably often.

OK, maybe a touch harsh. He sometimes also plays frustratingly poor, short innings but I know once he gets going he can be very damaging as his record shows.

Mike Selig wrote:I don't quite know what to make of Maxwell still. He does some extraordinary things on a cricket pitch whether with the bat, ball or in the field, but he does so many ridiculously stupid things as well. He's the kind of player you want to try to get into any team because of what he can do, but can quickly become a liability if the team isn't doing well. I do think he drives the side in the field though.

I'm the same. He is a freakish player but sometimes I wonder if he doesn't have a 'death wish' whilst playing. Like a Jonty Rhodes but a lot more risky. I hardly have my best confidence in him when the team is on the back foot and struggling. He doesn't seem to adjust his game all that much under different match scenarios.

Hopefully, he can temper down over the next couple of years and eliminate some of that risky (and sometimes totally silly and unnecessary!) stroke play.

He's also quite decent with the ball... always trying to contest and is a very top drawer fieldsman.

Haven't read the above comments yet, but that was dreadful.

Also very harsh on Briggs, to play him at Hobart where the boundary is about 10 metres waway and then 'drop' him for today, extremely harsh and not great for his confidence.

Funny tweet from Mascarenhas:

Can anyone give me one good reason why Dernbach is still playing t20 international cricket for England? #getspumpedeverygame

Isn't or wasn't Dernbach ranked number the number one bowler in t20?

So Lord Dernbach was as economical as ever!.
England batting was a mess like in the entire tour, and Australia, with many of their key players missing, completely smashed England again.

Dernbach has figures of 1 for 92 in 7 overs across the 2 games. That's some bowling really!.