Travis Head hundred drives Australia to easy victory against lacklustre England

I think we did everything we said we were going to do... obviously it wasn’t our day today and hopefully it can be next game. We were eyeing up a big score for sure, obviously it wasn’t meant to be. We probably didn’t rotate the strike as well as we wanted and ended up getting a below-par score in the end. It’s a long series and hopefully we can carry on that momentum.

Momentum? They lost...

Two-fer as well! I got a bit lucky at the start of my innings. If you can get through there’s a lot of runs to offer... it’s nice that I can contribute. I felt we did an exceptional job to get it to 315, it looked like it might be a few more. Greeny and Marnus were fantastic in the middle. I thought we played spin exceptionally well. 

Hard to believe that there are another four matches in this series... anyway, here they are. 

• September 21, 2nd ODI, Leeds
• September 24, 3rd ODI, Chester-le-Street
• September 27, 4th ODI, Lord’s
• September 29, 5th ODI, Bristol

The victory comes with a cut for four by Marnus Labuschagne and that wraps up a comprehensive victory for the tourists. 154 for Travis Head and 77 off 61 for Marnus Labuschagne, both unbeaten at the end. England were thumped. 

A skip down the pitch and yet another huge six down the ground for Travis Head. More tap for Livingstone. And that is a fine and fitting way to move to 150 off 123 balls. 

Might be all over in this over? A sweep for four for Labuschagne completes the over as the crowd thins out as certain defeat for England looms on a late-September evening. These types of ODI series are rubbish, aren’t they?

Just six needed...

The 144 scored by Travis Head is now the record score by an Australian batsman in England, beating Shane Watson in Southampton 11 years ago. A rather excellent innings that is driving his team to victory. Labuschagne adds another boundary, rocking back onto his back foot and cutting Rashid - in his final over - powerfully forward of square. Rashid ends with 0-59. 

A full toss from Livingstone goes for four behind square. Two more singles and then one goes through the batsman, the keeper and to the boundary behind for four byes. This has been a cake-walk for Australia, I’m afraid. These two have now put on 119 runs at 8.11 runs an over. 

Back into the boundaries, is Travis Head. A big slog up in the air and over the leg side boundary for six. Head then slogs in the air again, nowhere near the boundary but not near a man either, landing safe. 

Four runs an over needed now. This should be over pretty soon. 

Livingstone races through his over. No boundaries this time, but Labuschagne brings up a 42-ball 50 in the process. Three singles off it. 

Adil Rashid back into the attack but the boundary run has not been stemmed. A couple of singles first before Labuschagne gets  low and sweeps behind square on the leg side for four more, reaching 48 off 38. Head then gets in on the boundary act, again with a sweep of his own to deep backward square leg for four. A single off the last ball and England look a little flat, as well they might. 

53 off 72 needed for Australia. 

Labuschagne gets the long handle out and it has the trajectory of a nine-iron over cow corner. Good connection and well over the ropes. Livingstone, back on for his sixth over, gets the punishment. It’s more a sand wedge a couple of balls later as it’s more in the air - and not as good a connection - but Labuschagne goes down the ground again and it’s another six. A simple sweep for four means Australia are making very good progress in a very expensive over with still two balls remaining. 250 up for Australia and Labuschagne is motoring. 

Labuschagne opens the face of the bat very close to his body, off his hip really, past the keeper and slips for four. A better over from Carse to that point and there was not much wrong with that ball. A great, clever shot from the Australian. 

83 runs off 84 balls now so the rate is less than one a ball. Should be easily done but a couple of wickets and... well, Australia would still be favourites. I think seven wickets is the only way England win this from here. 

I don’t think that 17-run over has really changed the match situation a great deal but it does mean Australia can just put away the bad balls and chalk up the ones and twos on the others, where they can. That is what they do from Jacks’ fifth over, with three singles and one two from it. 

Travis Head flicks his wrists and scored a four on the leg-side this time Carse attempting a yorker but it just turns into a straight half-volley. Head then hits a shot marginally over the head - and indeed arms - of Harry Brook at wide mid-on and goes for four more. Head getting on with it now, trying to really break the back of this chase, definitively. 

His third four of the over is the best. He rocks back and punches it through the covers for four. A bit of a slap but great contact and Australia’s run-rate is approaching a run a ball. In fact, it reaches that exactly at the end of the over with the fourth four of Carse’s expensive over with 17 from it...

Will Jacks on for some off-spin. We are, unfortunately, at that annoying stage of an ODI where it all goes a bit quiet. Just three off his over, which was pretty decent. 

This is the first time Archer has bowled more than four overs in 18 months and it is showing. He has been a bit wayward, and at his pace combined with short boundaries, that is expensive. The ball is also skidding on under the lights as well. Feels like he strived too hard, bowled too many different combinations early on as if playing T20 and by the time he came back Travis Head was well set. Head’s hundred celebration aping Chris Gayle. Is he saying I’m the new Universe Boss? 

An over of strike rotation to begin with for Australia who reach 200 to barely a smattering of applause. 

WinViz has Australia as favourites here with a 58 per cent chance of victory. I wonder what that would slip to if Head got out in this Adil Rashid over? Head latches onto a slightly short ball that pops up and thrashes it through the covers for four. Bethell got a hand to it but could not prevent the four. He repeats the shot off the final ball but Bethell is there so it is just one. 

They’re not in tandem anymore. Potts replaces Archer and he starts with a wide. Labuschagne whips the attempted yorker off his laces for a single to midwicket and, after two dot balls, Head pierces the gap between mid on and square leg to work two to take him to 99.

Head brings up his sixth ODI hundred with a drive through point and raises his helmet on the end of his vertical bat high above his head like a Viking with a poor peasant’s head atop his sword. 

Australia need 126 off 120 balls. 

Time for me to leave you in the hands of Luke Slater to call the match home. 

Brook recalls Rashid into the attack. His two remaining World Cup-winners now in tandem. Nice and tidy from Rashid with one close shave for Labsuchagne when pinned off the back foot. More smart fielding from Bethell on the midwicket boundary keeps Australia down to three off the over.  

It was umpire’s call. England retain their review. 

Labuschagne lbw b Rashid  Too high? Hit him on the top flap but he was deep in is crease, Umpire’s call at best? 

How do you bowl to Head in this mood? Archer goes back of a length, looking for nip that has troubled him earlier in his innings but he just hangs back and back-cuts it for four. Four more singles are taken and that old Marnus war cry of ‘No run!’ resounds around Trent Bridge when he presses forward. 

Crafty bowling from Bethell, beating Green for pace. WinViz says it’s 50-50 after the fall of Green. Labuschagne, like Head, doesn’t internalise his monologue and yaps away at himself as he gets off the mark cutting for a single. Head also gets the scythe out …in fact three of the four singles these two share from the over are from cuts. The anomaly being Head’s long-on push. 

Green b Bethell 32  Arm ball skids on as Green shapes to cut and castles him. A maiden ODI wicket on debut for the all-rounder.  FOW 169/3

Head never stops commenting on his own shots and gasps when beaten by Archer’s first ball that snakes past his edge. He shouts ‘Woah!’ next ball when he spoons a drive close but not close enough to cover for England’s liking. Green times the pants off an on-drive for four and plays tip and run to wide cover. 

Head slashes at the last ball and it flies over point for four. Rashid was the fielder and couldn’t get close. Morgan thinks Bethell should be fielding there not Rashid. 

Green is motoring now and gets out the broom to sweep Bethell hard, a la Duckett but from 2ft taller, for four. Brook is going to make a change from spin. But it’s Archer, not Carse. Green is a sizeable target. 

Green heaves a Livingstone full toss for four, Harrow drives a googly off the inside edge for a single and Head ends the over with another boundary, collaring one that was angled on to leg stump and pumping it for four.

Livingstone needs a rest now and saved for a new batsman. Give Carse the Plunkett job now. 

A debut bowl in ODIs for Bethell, the Warwickshire left-arm spinner with the face of James Cracknell and the hair of Jimmy Bullard. His first ball is speared on to leg stump and Green sweeps for four. The Australia all-rounder bunts a single off the back foot down the ground and Head ends the over with a handsome late cut for four. 

Australia need 173 off 162 balls. 

Head smites Livingstone’s drag-down for six but that’s the aberration. The quirky spinner racks up four dot balls with off-breaks to the left-hander from round the wicket and leg-breaks to Green who moved off strike with a leg-bye. 

Just the two singles to bookend Rashid’s fifth over. 

Livingstone is bowling beautifully. He did so, too, in the T20s. It’s as if he has overcome years of doubt and injury to be his true self. The ball that pinned Green on the toe and led to the successful Australia review was a sharp-turning leg-break that not only pitched outside the line but ragged away too. 

He didn’t hit it but it pitched outside off. 

Green lbw b Livingstone In line? If he hit it he’s out as Duckett caught it. 

Green, who has yet to play an innings in England commensurate with his talent, is given one by Rashid on leg stump and he tickles it round the corner for three. Head, with mid-off up, chances his arm at one pushed across him and scuff-slices it for four over the top without really middling it. When Head plays across the line, it pops off the leading edge for a single and the leg-spinner then pins Green on the shins with the slider but it was going down. 

Off-spin from the versatile Livingstone to the left-handed Head who takes four balls to get off strike with a single down the ground. He switches to leg-spin for Green who waits for the dip and taps it through cover for another single. 

Rashid floats one too full to Head who steps down and thumps it over long-off for six. Head acknowledges Rashid’s skill for the rest of the over, and his nerve in using drift and turn to keep him down to a two and a single off the next three. Nelson!

Livingstone replaces Jacks and drops short but the turn and bounce saves him as Smith slaps the first for two through cover, Bethell saving two with a headlong dive, and pulls the next. Livingstone bags him next ball. But he also greets Green with a long hop and the Bug Yin stands up and pastes it through cover for four. 

Smith c&b Livingstone 32  Just like one of Marnus’ wickets, he plinks a catch off a leading edge back to the bowler trying to turn a leg-break through midwicket. Smith is livid. Livi punts the ball in celebration. FOW 96/2

Big appeal when Rashid pins Smith with his slider. Looked out to me but it may have pitched outside leg or was trailing down. England don’t review and Sky, which has been having tech problems today, doesn’t show us the ball-tracking. 

Head breaks the fetters by pulling Jacks’ drag-down for four and late-cutting the last ball of the over for another to bring up a 17th ODI fifty in his 66th match (to go with five hundreds). 

Rashid, on 199 ODI wickets, extracts big turn with his leg-breaks and dupes Head with the slider  that he was looking to turn to leg but kisses the leading edge as he closed the bat and shot to point. Just the single off the over. England are starting to squeeze. 

Nice and tight from Jacks again, taking a leaf from Zampa’s book and going as full as he can. But he does fall short twice and they cuff him for a single apiece. 

Smith walks across to drive Carse for two out to the boundary rider at cover then, after three dot balls, chisels out a snarling, 90mph yorker. As if on Blackpool pier with a tea cosy on his head, he then reads Carse’s mind, hangs back for the short ball next up and pulls it high and far for six!

After being marmalised at Kensington Oval in the T20 World Cup by Head, Will Jacks shows his mettle and the lessons he has learned to restrict the mercurial left-hander to just a single with his off-breaks. 

Head hangs back and muscles a back foot drive for four off Carse and ends the over with another skelped fine off middle. His wrists are remarkably slick. 

Brook turns to spin for the final over of the powerplay. 

Head works the length ball from Archer angling in to the left-hander from round the wicket over backward square leg for six with a flick of the wrist, almost flipping it, but off the middle. 

Archer comes back over and targets the ribs. Head flips it, shouts ‘Oh no!’, and jogs a single in relief when it falls short of Bethell running in from the boundary.

Archer bounces Smith who takes it on and top-edges a pull for six fine. 

Impressively tight start by Brydon Carse, as Liam Plunkett 2.0, the master of the heavy ball, Head can’t pierce the infield for five balls and then gets away by tapping it wide of mid-on for a single. Carse has wheels, hitting 89mph. 

Expensive over from Potts. He starts by straying on to Smith’s pads and he flicks it with remarkable batspeed over midwicket for six. That’s the short boundary but even so. After Smith walks across his stumps to play his regular strike-rotating legside clip off middle, Head eases a drive for four through mid-off then slashes another off the top edge to beat third man on a glassy outfield. 

Archer with one jaffa in a mishmash of an opening spell, angling it into Head’s middle stump and getting it to jag off the seam and whoosh past Head’s edge. But there are also two gimmes, one outside Head’s off-stump that he chisels through cover for four and one on his pads that he whisks for another boundary. 

Marsh climbs into Potts’ good length ball and dispatches it with brutal force over mid-off for four. Potts, though, ties him up two balls later. Out walks Smith to that other old song about a notoriously lachrymose press conference. Smith gets off the mark with a tuck off the hip.

Carse drops Head at backward point. It was above his head and he went up one handed but it burst through his fingertips. Eoin Morgan says it reminded him of Stokes’ catch in the opening World Cup match against South Africa in 2019, to dismiss Andile Phehlukwayo. He also says Carse had wandered out of position and it would have been a sitter had he stayed back on the rope. 

Marsh c Carse b Potts 10  Walks down to the short ball which came at him quicker than he thought and cramped him. His bottom hand comes off the bat as he splices it to deep backward square. FOW 20/1

Archer starts his second over with a legside wide then another with his ‘third ball’ after he angles one into Marsh and jags it away to beat Marsh’s outside edge. But when he adjusts the other way after the wides, he overcorrects, hangs it outside off and Marsh clumps it for four with a punishing drive. Marsh works one off his pads before Archer finds Head’s edge and he jabs it just short and wide of second slip for two, beating Bethell’s direct hit from third man by 2ft. 

A third wide is called by Mr Dharmasena, this one a bouncer outside off that veers away. He was right to call it despite Archer’s withering look and double-teapotting. Archer fights back with a ripper that angles across Head and straightens to whistle past the edge as he groped down the line of off-stump.  

Ricky Ponting thinks England may well have enough and, once the effects of the roller have worn off, will be able to stifle Australia on a sticky pitch. Having said that, both Archer and Potts are extracting bounce and movement. Caractacus twice beats Marsh flashing outside off as the ball leaps off a good length and he cramps him with the shorter one arrowed into his body. Marsh tries to pull but is hit on the biceps. 

The Australia captain gets away from strike with a flick off his pads when Potts tries the yorker but falls six inches short. 

Archer starts at full tilt and nips one back into Marsh’s knee but it did too match and hence stifled the appeal halfway up his throat. He nibbles another one back off the seam on to Marsh’s thighpad and he jabs it away for a leg-bye. No speed gun yet. Oh, here it is when he angles one across Head at 88 mph and it seams away, the lefthander slashes it off an edge over gully for four. 

Potts will take the other new ball. 

James Minto: the 16-year-old bowling 87mph for Durham

 In the village of Norton, to the north of Stockton-on-Tees in the county of Durham, stands a tree on the village green.

It is already called “James’s tree” because it was on this green that James Minto used to play with his mother and younger brother Teddy.

Minto might not be a familiar surname in cricket but it came to prominence this week when, at the age of 16 years and 296 days, James became the youngest player to represent Durham in first-class cricket, and the second-youngest bowler since the Second World War to take a first-class wicket (after Craig Miles, then of Gloucestershire now of Warwickshire), and – no less – against the county champions Surrey at the Oval.

You can read Scyld’s profile in full here

Every week the best of Telegraph’s cricket coverage arrives in your inbox with original writing from the Fab Four, Nick, Scyld, Tim and Will, themselves. And it’s free. Avail yourselves here. 

Very strange England card, top heavy with runs and then wickets lost to part-time spin as Australia’s patched up attack somehow avoided carnage. Somehow Labuschagne ended up with three wickets having taken just two in his previous 52 ODIs. England faded badly after Duckett chipped Labuschagne a catch in 95. From 201-2 at 30 overs and on for a big score, England made what felt like a below par 315. Australia bowled more overs of spin – 31 – than ever before in an ODI against England, mainly because they lost a seamer to injury and their second choice quicks were carted around. In total they used eight bowlers, fielded brilliantly, and England’s inexperience showed. This target will perfectly suit the strengths of Smith and Labuschagne to bat without taking huge risks. Australia have given themselves a great chance from a poor start. It is why they are world champions.

But it does not look a defensible one at Trent Bridge which is a hitter’s paradise. 

Head to complete the innings and a 31st over of spin from Australia today. He starts with a wide way outside off so goes straighter and Bethell slog sweeps for six!

The next is tossed wide again and Bethell, aiming for le coin des vaches, edges for four. But he is out next ball. And Rashid holes out for a golden duck trying to go over long on, too. 

England are bowled out with two balls to spare. 

Rashid c Labuschagne b Head 0  Gone for a golln duck, trying to do what Bethell could not. And neither could he. FOW 315 all out

Bethell c Labuschagne b Head 35  Tries to clear long on off a straight ball and holes out. FOW 315/9

Zampa sees Bethell coming and pushes it wider. The left-hander commits to the drive and edges it down to third man for a single. Potts has a swing and miss off a slog sweep and again with a reverse that Australia send upstairs, allowing the fans to serenade Alex Carey with that old familiar song. Zampa pins Potts and Australia review again to no avail. 

And Potts collars the last ball and swipes it over long on for six!

He ends with 10-1-49-3, having started with 3-0-27-0. 

Too high.

Potts lbw b Zampa  Back leg, above the knee roll. 

Marsh gives Head a fourth over. Potts thumps two through cover and then whisks one to midwicket. Bethell uses his feet to harpoon two down the ground and spear a single through cover. 

Exceptional captaincy from Mitchell Marsh, especially his employment of Labuschagne and Zampa.

Archer c sub (Connolly) b Labuschagne 4  Tailender’s swish that he slices to point. Marnus has a three-for. FOW 288/8

Sparkling shot from Bethell to come down to Head and drills a drive for four through cover. After flicking one fine off his toes, Jofra sweeps hard and square for four then drives for what would have bee a single wide of mid-off but Bethell wants the strike at the start of the next over.

Sensational from Zampa, a wicket and only run. He offered Carse the tempter and he fell for it. lured on to the rocks by the flight but undone by the dip and skid. 

Carse c Green b Smith 2  Caught at wide long on from Carse’s slog sweep.  FOW 278/7

England would have thought they had done well with this score in 2015 but in the post-Morgan world they look well short, depending, of course, on how they bowl. 

They make no headway off , erm, Head, swiping and prodding five singles, which is too little and too late at this stage. 

Zampa resumes with a wicket maiden as the wheels come off England’s progress. Undone by spin, even from the rarely employed. Speaking of which, Marsh brings Head back. 

Livingstone c Green b Zampa 13  Walked down and tried to hit him downtown but misjudged the flight, sending it straight up the chimney. FOW 272/6

Short rattles through his 10th over for the cost of only three singles to end with 10-0-68-1. 

Marnus comes in so quickly between balls, jumps around and yelps to ham up the drama but that notwithstanding is always in the game as an irritant, an errant child. Livingstone almost pops the googly to short-extra but it just dies in frint of Smith and Bethell almost chips back to the bowler who dives, takes it on the half-volley and tries to run him out while lying supine. 

Excellent from Short and his ring of infielders. Four singles off the over. Powerplay three to commence with Labuschagne’s fifth over. 

England need a partnership between these two like their match-winning stand at Sophia Gardens if they are to get up to par, which is 350 here. 

Bethell gets off the mark on his ODI debut by cutting Labuschagne’s wide one for four but he almost drags on going for the same stroke again without the width to mitigate the risk. He has the modern player’s liking for cutting off his stumps, employing a gimlet eye and quicksilver hands. 

Jamie Smith skips down and pounds a drive back over Short’s head for four, then opens the face to fillet two behind point.  He hangs back in his crease and swipes across the line to cow corner where Hardie dives back to claw it on to the ground, preventing six with acrobatic panache. Two balls later he goes for the same stroke and holes out. 

Smith c sub (Connolly) b Short 23  Cloths the arm ball off the back foot to long on.  FOW 256/5

Jamie Smith reads Livingstone’s flight, crouches deep in the crease and then brings the bat through like a first-tee drive, fading it over cow corner for six! Using his feet to stroke a drive to long-on after a wide, Smith farms the strike.  

Livingstone played himself into fine nick in the two T20s and carries on in that happy vein with a delicious scoop off Short for two followed by another flipped over his shoulder for four. 

Glenn Maxwell has texted Ricky Ponting to say: ‘Marnus won’t sleep tonight.’ That was after one wicket. He’ll be insufferable after two!

England try to take Labuschagne down and he has the last laugh after leaking a four to Smith and a four and six to Brook sweeps. But his top-spinner comes up trumps for him and Australia. 

Brook c&b Labuschagne 39  Another slow one that grips in the pitch and Brook, having slog-swept the preceding ball for six, oings it back up the pitch and Marnus dives to take it to his right.  FOW 232/4

Head goes round the wicket for his off-spin and England, not wanting to make a gift of another wicket to a part-timer, play him cautiously on what has become a sticky pitch for the spinners to the tune of three singles. The slower the delivery the harder it is to hit. 

What a bowling change. Labuschagne and his Bertie Bassett armoury do the trick Zampa and the frontline bowlers could not. 

Marsh tries to help lightning strike twice by bringing on Travis Head from the other end. 

Duckett c&b Labuschagne 95  After his 98 at Lord’s in the Ashes Test last summer, Duckett has again fallen short of the century he deserved by chipping golden arm’s googly back to the bowler as he was trying to pat it off the back foot through midwicket.  FOW 213/3

Green relieves Short and the all-rounder has a ring-field and tries to bowl into the pitch with a lot of short cutters. Duckett gets him away for three singles. Brook pulls for one and correctly grasps that the last one, by the deployment of a deep third man, is going to be short and it is. He’s on to it in a flash and lamps it on the pull for four. 

Run-miser Zampa restricts England to three singles as the leg-spinner plays cat and mouse with Duckett, trying to pin him leg-before because of his penchant for the sweep. 

Duckett reverse sweeps Short for four through backward point, clips the off-spinner off his pads for a single and Brook dumps him into the crowd at extra-cover for a towering six. Short comes back round the wicket and tries to fire it into the pads but when he strays a touch too wide Brook sweeps for two to bring up the 200. 

Zampa keeps the shackles on after suffering an unfamiliar mauling in his first three-over spell. Duckett sweeps a pair of singles and Brook spears a drive through mid-off for another.

Ricky Ponting points out that Ben Dwarshuis has been off the field for more than half an hour. Taht poses problems for Marsh if he is a  frontline seamer down. But Short and Green can fill in.  

Short is bowling nicely now he has come over the wicket and beats Brook on the outside edge as he swished at a drive. The spinners have jammed on the brakes, keeping them down to singles, Duckett cuffing his two into the legside, until he overpitches and Brook hammers a drive over extra cover for six!

After chewing up a couple of dot balls, Brook drives Zampa down the ground for a single. Duckett is deceived by a very full one, fired into the blockhole, and he drags it on to his boot. The bowler yells ‘Catch it’ as it loops up but Carey isn’t that quick. No one is. I think it might have kissed the ground, too.  

Marsh persists with spin at both ends after the breakthrough but Short comes over the wicket to Brook to good effect, keeping England down to two singles with his off-breaks. 

Excellent comeback from Zampa in his 100th ODI and Jacks is his 170th wicket. 

Jacks c Smith b Zampa 62  Done by the dip, I think, as he tucked into the hint of width to try to go over the top and spooned a catch to extra-cover. The ball was fuller than he thought. Done by flight, too. Smith took it over his head.  FOW 168/2

Short comes back for a third over of his off-spin. Jacks uses the angle across him from round the wicket to hang back and then smack a drive through cover for four, nutmegging Abbott much to the joy of the crowd. 

Jacks takes on Hardie’s ‘sucker’ ball that looks like an off-cutter but at the last minute he changes his grip and pushes it through at full pace. It’s overpitched and wide so Jacks throwing everything but the kitchen sink at it sends it flying off the edge over third man for four. 

Fifty for Will Jacks, smoking Abbott for a pull through midwicket at sternum height for four after pulling the ball before through mid-on for two. Australia are struggling to find a consistent, containing length. Jacks dabs for a single and Duckett pings an on-drive for four and pulls the last for four more. That’s the hundred partnership, too, off 86 balls.

Feels like an important innings for Will Jacks. He was dropped during the T20 World Cup despite going to the Caribbean to great fanfare as the next big thing. He probably should have played ahead of Bairstow in the West Indies but they were stuck in their ways then. No 3 is a great opportunity for him to make a score against this thin Aussie bowling line up and the way he took the attack to Zampa – their best bowler – was good aggression and a sign of confidence. 

Zampa retreats and Marsh turns back to Hardie who gives Duckett one in the slot, angling across the left-hander from over the wicket and the Test opener creams a drive for four. The right-arm seamer adjusts his line and pace for a couple of dot balls but then drops short and Duckett carts him for four on the pull. The last ball jumps off a good length and jams Duckett’s left index finger against the handle. That hurt. But he doesn’t need treatment. 

Abbott returns and starts doggedly, going for only three singles off his first four balls but then strays down leg and Jacks flicks, misses and the ball clips his thighpad and scoots down for four leg-byes. 

Deft Duckett shows us another of his sweeps, this time the lap-scoop, off Zampa, popping it over his shoulder for two after a couple of singles to start the over. Jacks employs his power to climb into an leg-break and spank his Invincibles team-mate back through mid-on for four, hit with thundering force. Long on moved quickly but he shouldn’t have bothered. 

Green replaces Hardie and goes for length. Jacks flicks it with such a strong bottom hand that he levers it over midwicket for three and Duckett pulls for two then opens the face to amear the next ball for two more through cover point to reach a half-century off 49 balls. 

Zampa resumes after the break and Duckett reverse-sweeps him in front of square (!) for four. How many different sweeps did he say he had in India? Thirteen? More than Dick van Dyke, that’s for sure,

Jacks drills  single to mid-on to raise the fifty partnership off 54 balls before Duckett skelps the low full toss off his pads for another single. Nine off the over, one boundary and five singles in total. 

Marsh switches Hardie to the Broad End and, after a couple of singles are taken, he surprises Duckett with some jarring bounce off a good length and he hops back but plays it safely. Duckett’s eye is so keen but the no-footwork swings at good length balls off middle do not beat the fielder at cover. 

Drinks. 

Jacks isn’t intimidate by Zampa’s reputation and record and launches him over long-on for six when he overpitches by no more than 2cm. Zampa recovers and uses flight, variations of pace and the googly to keep them down to three singles off the rest. 

Couple of wides for Green, who has replaced Short. Duckett drives two singles through point, right elbow pointing skywards and Jacks opens the face to divert a single through the same area. 

Here comes Zampa. Stuart Broad thinks he has the game in his hands as Australia’s best bowler and someone who England have struggled to master since his re-set in 2021. 

Hardie returns and leaks only three singles. Duckett does try one big shot but mistimes it completely and just scuffs it to cover. 

Sterling work by Paul Farbrace with the Martlets whose victory over Gloucs by an innings and seven runs has sealed their promotion.

The sawn-off part of the ground when bowling from this end to the right-hander is at extra-cover which is a strength of Jacks and when Short angles the first ball across him, he takes a stride and flays it into the stand down there for six! After Jacks opens the face to drive for a single and Duckett crouches in his crease to tap a single to cover, Jacks sweeps for two.  

Jacks, who stands with his bat in the periscope-up position, his wrists cocked, launches into a big on-drive off Cam Green that Marsh stops at mid-on with a dive, saving three. Duckett rides the bounce to drop a ball at his feet and hares a single before Green could get to the ball and boot it at the stumps. 

Australia turn to an over of spin to complete the powerplay. It’s Matt Short who bowls off-spin round the wicket to right-handers and left, like Joe Root. Duckett nudges a single and Jacks is tied up for a couple of balls before taking a big stride to stroke a single through cover. Duckett charges at the last one but the ball hits the inside edge and cannons into his pad before he scampers back into his crease. 

Duckett’s seventh-over assault:

Abbott bowls a no-ball, a back-foot infringement rather than a front-foot one when he went too wide of the crease. Free hit, delayed by a wide. Jacks clubs the freebie through mid-on for four, then clips two with a stir of the bottom hand through midwicket for two. 

A maiden ODI wicket for Dwarshuis and it comes with a ball that highlights his control and ability to move the ball. He ahs started impressively – excellent lien from over the wicket and shapes the ball both ways, while also straightening it off the pitch. 

Very streaky innings from Phil Salt, playing and missing or edging a third of balls faced. There is movement but this is the worst Aussie attack I have covered since 10-11 Ashes. Starc, Hazelwood or Cummins would probably have cleaned up Salt long ago.

Salt b Dwarshuis 17  Wobble seam makes it skid on and keep low, knocking back middle and leg, gating the right-hander as he jabbed his hands out too late and ended up groping at the ball which cut him at half. Salt stares at the pitch but I think it was more about Dwarshuis’ grip than any Nottingham gremlins.  FOW 48/1

Abbott pitches up and Duckett takes on the off-drive but loses his grip and ends up calwing it through mid-on for four. The next ball is a pie, covered in gravy. Short yet only thigh high on a belter of a pitch for batting, Duckett swivels and pulls it hard for four. After Abbott ties him up with a couple of balls designed to force him to hit through mid-off, Duckett uses his feet to successive balls to short-arm pull through mdiwicket and through wide long on on the charge. Pleasing symmetry to that over 4-4-.-.-4-4. 

Tight over from Dwarshuis, the slug balancer and that includes the final ball which Salt Harrow drives for four, the ball whistling off the inside edge of the toe through fine leg. A moral victory for the bowler which will be no consolation at all. 

A glimpse of Duckett’s Test forte when Abbott strays too wide and short. The wee man gets up on his toes and punches it on the up with a vertical bat through cover for four. I suppose his Test forte is his all-round forte for such a strokemaker. He treats red and white, those two impostors, just the same. Width again gives Duckett the chance to free his arms and he slaps this fuller one off the front foot through cover for three, the ball chased down by Hardie. 

Good crowd at Trent Bridge but why on earth is this a day-nighter in September? It seems perverse to expect people to sit outside at 8pm at this time of the year. A 12.30 start time still necessitates a day off to go to the cricket and it is a sell out so it is not as if there will be walk ups wandering in after work in the city centre. I get day-night T20s but for ODIs in England? Nothing to gain.

A meaty inside edge from Salt as he drives at Dwarshuis’s inswinger earns him two through backward square leg but he cannot penetrate the ring off the next three balls until he nudges calmly for a single, no hot more a deflection. Duckett is squared up by swing and the ball flies off the leading edge safely for a single behind point. 

Marsh whips Hardie off and turns to his most experienced bowler, Sean Abbott. 

Apologies for the lack of scorecard at the start. It should be there now. Hardie keeps pounding a good length on off and just in the corridor apart from one shorter one. Duckett plays at them all but can’t beat the field until he sneaks a drive through cover for two and then steers another into the offside for a single. Hardie stays true to the plan outside off and Salt, thinking it would swing, plays it late and punches it through cover for a single. 

Ben Dwarshuis, the 30-year-old debutant from NSW, takes the other new ball with his left-arm swing. Salt plays him watchfully as the ball angles across him, probing mid-on and mid-off for no return until he tries a bigger shot but edges it short of slip. The next ball give shim more width and he slaps it through extra-cover for four. 

Swing for Hardie, as there was at Sophia Gardens, and he starts on a good length and swings it away from Salt’s swish. The next ball swings too but is fuller and when Salt tries to work it through midwicket it comes off the leading edge and plinks through cover for a single. Duckett, as is his wont, plays tip and run, steering a single between backward point and second slip. 

Hardie is Ollie Robinson pace, low 80s at best, but moves the ball nicely and he almost bags Salt off another leading edge that flies through point and lands six inches short of Smith’s dive. They run a single. 

Australia are back in canary yellow and with a record of having won their last 12 successive ODIs. Phil Salt is on strike and Aaron Hardie has the first new ball. 

England  Phil Salt, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Harry Brook (capt), Jamie Smith (wk), Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Matt Potts, Adil Rashid.

Australia  Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith, Cameron Green, Marnus Labuschagne, Alex Carey (wk), Matt Short, Aaron Hardie,Sean Abbott, Ben Dwarshuis, Adam Zampa.

Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Glenn Maxwell have succumbed to the virus that has hit the Australia party. 

And have decided to bat first. 

Good afternoon and welcome to live coverage of the first one-day international of five between England and Australia at Trent Bridge where, six years ago, England made 481 for six in their 242-run victory over Tim Paine’s side when the corn was as high as an elephant’s eye for Eoin Morgan’s side. Today’s match features the last two world champions, the remnants of England’s 2019 team (Adil Rashid and Jofra Archer) against the men who won it in Ahmedabad last autumn denuded of David Warner and Pat Cummins, one retired and one rested after playing Major League Cricket.

Today’s match will not be as free-scoring as 2018’s when Jason Roy made 82 off 61 balls. Alex Hales 147 off 92, Jonny Bairstow 139 off 92 and Morgan 67 off 30 but the strange shape of Trent Bridge since the building of the Smith Cooper stand snipped off a swathe of the outfield at long leg when bowling from the Radcliffe Road End, does make it, as Neville Cardus wrote a hundred years ago, ‘lotus land for batsmen’ albeit in a manner wholly unenvisaged by the game’s great romantic. The way Travis Head has been batting, thank goodness for England’s sake that he is left-handed and does not have the advantage of Hales and Bairstow if the quicks drop short at him unless the ball is way offline.

Harry Brook leads England today, standing in for Jos Buttler, and he led the Northern Superchargers well in the seven matches for which he was available, using his bowling resources cannily to transform a perennially struggling side into one with a sniff of the eliminator right until the end of the regular season. He led the Under-19s to the quarter-finals of the 2018 50-over World Cup but they were beaten by Australia in their first knockout game when, having bowled their opponents out for 127, they collapsed for 96, capitulating to the leg-spinner Lloyd Pope who took a remarkable eight for 35. He, for one, will be wary of Adam Zampa today.