365 Sporting Days

4 days after the event due to a lack of internet, I’m not too sure where to start or where to go with this one! Records are made to be broken, in 2016 England scored 444 against Pakistan at Trent Bridge, Alex Hales scored a record 171 that day.  Hales was to break his personal record in 2017, when he scored 187 in the Royal London Cup Final at Lords to lead Nottingham to the cup.

It took England a little longer, just under 2 years to be precise.  I missed the 2016 match, as you can see I didn’t miss this one! I have lots of photos to share and in all honesty not that many words!

My seat was in the Radcliffe Road Middle Tier and I had the company of Lesley a very knowledgeable Notts member and her cousin Jane for the day, it was lovely to sit next to a like minded cricket fans.

Tim Paine won the toss and put England in to bat, a decision he would regret!  Jason Roy opened with Jonny Bairstow, the pair have built a fine understanding and we were treated to a batting masterclass that would be the theme of the whole innings pretty much!

Roy made 82 from 61 balls, approaching his century he was run out, with the ball coming in from D’Arcy Short, a terrible way to lose your wicket that close to the 100 milestone!  Roy and Bairstow had amassed 159 in just the 20th over.

Home man Alex Hales, in desperate need of runs came in at 3, he and Bairstow carried on with that masterclass, Bairstow reached his 4th ODI century in 2018 becoming only the 8th player to score 4 centuries in 6 ODi innings, he looked to be on for a really big score, but along came Ashton Agar, he had him caught by Jhye Richardson for 139,that had taken Bairstow just 92 balls and included 15 Fours and 5 Sixes!  Entertaining to say the least!

England were 310 for 2 in the 35th over.  We’d been expecting Joe Root to enter the fray, poor Australia must have been horrified to see Jos Buttler coming in at 4, however he wasn’t to emulate his team mates this time, he was caught by Aaron Finch from the bowling of Richardson.  Amazingly I didn’t just sit and gawp as I usually do when a catch is in the offing!

Hales had been keeping pace with Bairstow and had reached his century, he batted on with captain Eoin Morgan at the other end, Morgan broke a record himself in making a 21 ball half-century, the quickest by an England player.  The pair put on 124 in just under 10 overs.

That record of 444 was well in sight, Hales became Richardson’s second wicket when he was caught by Agar, he’d scored 147 from 92 balls, including 16 Fours and 5 Sixes.  We’d witnessed two outstanding innings!

It seemed to be lost on the Trent Bridge crowd that Richardson was on a hat-trick when he had Morgan caught by Tim Paine on the next ball.  Morgan had made 67 in 30 balls including 3 Fours and 6 Sixes, one of which clattered the stand just to the left of where I was sitting, and you can tell I was high up!   The 444 had been passed by this stage and England were on 459 for 5.  with 15 balls remaining we had hopes for 500.

Moeen Ali and Joe Root, who’d come in at 7 were at the crease.  To add insult to injury Moeen was caught, on a no ball!  But, he was run out on the next ball.  Moeen added 11, Root 4 and David Willey 1 as England made a mighty 481 for 6! Horror of horrors for all of the Australian bowlers, but this is a scoreboard Andrew Tye will want to forget!

Where do you go after an innings like that?  I think it’s right to describe the Australia innings as a total anti-climax.

For some extremely strange reason Aaron Finch didn’t open the batting for Australia, that was instead left to Travis Head and D’Arcy Short.  Short was out for 12 after he hit a ball from Willey to Moeen Ali, Australia were 27 for 1.

Australia were going to have to do something amazing to have a sniff in this game, Shaun Marsh who’d had a good series was next in. Travis Head had made a good start, making 51 from 31 balls, but as in the first 2 matches the Australians struggled with the England spinners and Head followed suit, he was out caught and bowled Moeen Ali.  27 for 1 had moved on to 95 for 2.

Moeen took his second wicket 2 overs later as Marsh was caught by Liam Plunkett for 24, Australia were 100 for 3 and the scoreboard just wasn’t ticking over to any great degree when it came to runs required.

The crowd was subdued during Australia’s innings, there were some shots to admire, but very few people applauded them,  which was a disappointment.  Of the remaining batsmen Marcus Stoinis made 44 before being run out and Ashton Agar who can hold his head high scored 25.

But this was one of the most futile run chases I’ve witnessed as Australia were all out for 239.  Moeen took 3 for 28 and Rashid 4 for 47.  The winning margin was 242 runs and Australia were bowled out with 13 overs remaining.  This 3rd ODI really was men against boys!