The recent humiliation of the Australian team probably marks an all-time low in their cricketing history…
What a day it was.
A day on which many new records were created; a day that the Aussies desperately wanted to be theirs to keep the five match series alive – but fortune chose to side with the Britishers time and time again. The world was shocked as Australia lost the match by a whopping 242 runs, their biggest defeat margin ever in a One Day International (ODI). It was especially hard to believe for those people who back in the day had seen the Aussies maintain an unquestionable dominance over the cricketing world for no less then eight years, a time when even scoring 242 against the awe-inspiring Aussie bowling attack, consisting of the likes of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne, was an achievement. But like all eras, this one also had to come to an end.
The performance of the Australian cricket team has gradually declined over the years. This last year has been especially tough for them. Earlier in the year, Australian cricket was shook by the ball-tampering scandal in which both the captain and vice-captain were involved. For a team going through a rebuilding process of sorts, this was a huge blow. The captaincy was passed to the inexperienced Tim Paine and the team, reeling, headed to Britain hoping to retain some pride. But the pressure reached breaking point as the they lost the first two ODI’s and found themselves in a do-or-die situation for the rest of the series.
From the very start of the game, the situation seemed grim for the Australian bowlers. What with excellent batting conditions and the sweet timing of the English openers, both Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow took the not-so-respectable Aussie bowling attack to the cleaners. Scoring at a run rate of nearly 10 runs an over, the Britishers quickly piled up the score against a seemingly helpless opposition. The Aussie skipper admitted to this apparent feeling of helplessness later in an interview, accepting that it was the toughest cricket game he’d ever been a part of.
Can Australia recover from their all-time ODI low? pic.twitter.com/JPFdLwdKL8
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) June 21, 2018
The wicket of Jason Roy as England’s score read 159/0 came as a relief to the Australians as he departed after scoring a blistering 82 from 61 deliveries. But if the Australians thought that this was an end to the fireworks then they were sorely mistaken. In stepped the man of the moment, Alex Hales, as he along with Jonny Bairstow butchered the Australian bowling, both scoring memorable centuries along the way as they took England closer to forming the new record for the highest ODI score in an innings.
Later in the innings, the English skipper also joined the party as he scored England’s fastest ever ODI fifty and became England’s all-time leading run-scorer in ODI history, scoring 67 from just 30 balls. At one point, it seemed certain that England would breach 500 but the Aussies pulled back in the last few overs, restricting the Britishers to 481/6. Although the Australian top order provided them with a decent start, they lost their way midway through the innings as they suffered mini-collapses along the way and were restricted to 239.
With the ODI series lost, the first priority of the Australian team would be to avoid being whitewashed and hopefully win the lone T20 against England so as to salvage some respect. But more importantly, their tri-series in July with Pakistan and Zimbabwe provides them with an ideal opportunity to regain some of their lost prestige. Will they be able to pull it off or not? Only time will tell…