Maxwell, Carey shines as Australia beats England in ODI series

It was the last ODI of England summer 2020 at Old Trafford Manchester. With Australia managing to escape defeat from jaws of victory in the 2nd ODI and plenty of middle to lower-middle order batting woes calling England as favourites for the 3rd and decider ODI would not have been the wrong call. England won an important toss and elected to bat. With what happened in previous two ODIs batting first was like winning half the England started off disastrously by losing two wickets of first two balls of the match.

Bairstow and Morgan did not allow Australian Pacers to dictate terms and instead launched a counter-attack to give their side the momentum. Morgan fell to Zampa in 11th over but by then run rate had touched 6. Buttler fell early but Bairstow was going strong and in came Billings to take England forward. Both scored at a fast clip and took England past 200 run mark before 40th over with Bairstow scoring his 10th ODI century and Billings scoring an entertaining 50. After both departed Woakes hit Australian bowlers to all parts of the ground to score a half-century and took England past 300 run mark.

From 0/2 to 302/7 it was England with all momentum and for Australia to chase down the target top 3 needed to go big. Woakes with his tail up dismissed Finch and Stoinis early to push Australia on the back foot. From there on Australia felt behind the run rate and kept losing wickets. Root bowling for first time in series took 2 wickets and soon Australia lost half their side in 17 overs and with only 73 on board. Maxwell and Carey were the last recognised pair at crease and required run rate was nearing 7 runs per hour.

Archer had Carey caught at the third man of a no-ball. After that Maxwell and Carey started taking the game deep with both targeting the shorter side boundary to get the odd boundary to keep Australia in-game and ensured run rate did not get out of reach. Both completed their respective centuries and added 212 runs for 6th wicket. England slowly were getting pushed out of the game but got wickets of Maxwell and Carey in successive overs. With 10 to get in final over and Starc-Cummins at the crease, Morgan took the gamble of bowling Rashid.

Starc hit the first ball for a six to give Aussies the edge and then swept the 4th ball for the boundary to hand England first home series defeat since 2015. Starc scored a cameo of 11 of 3 which ensured the hard work of Maxwell & Carey got the result it deserved. Two centuries at number 6 and 7 in a decider and with the team down and out in first 20 overs of the chase, the game took us to Bevan era. Australia has successfully managed to pull off a chase with a kind of character that is very rarely seen in modern cricket.