England vs Australia one day thread

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Comments here for the two 20/20 games and seven one dayers against the Aussies.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

From bbc.co.uk

An unbeaten century from opener Ian Bell led England to a seven-wicket win in a rain-affected tour match against the Prime Minister's XI in Canberra.

Bell continued his superb Ashes form with 124 off 102 balls as England eased to a revised total of 223, after the home side had posted 254-9.

Jonathan Trott, batting at number three, added a useful 48.

Earlier, Michael Yardy and Ajmal Shazhad were the pick of the England bowlers, taking three wickets each.

The match enabled a number of players to stake their claim for selection for the first Twenty20 international, which takes place on Wednesday in Adelaide.

And it was Warwickshire right-hander Bell - who has not played a Twenty20 for his country since June 2008 - who most successful demonstrated his credentials, in an unfamiliar opening role in the absence of the rested Andrew Strauss.

Bell's typically fluent and attractive innings ensured England remained above the required run-rate, as they chased down their revised target.

He was ably assisted by Steven Davies (24) in an opening stand of 82 and, more significantly Trott, with whom he added 98.

Bell offered only one real chance to the home side during his innings but Callum Ferguson spilled the catch off the bowling of Trent Copeland.

Not even a 30-minute rain delay, shortly after Bell had reached 50, could halt his momentum and he brought his century up from 89 balls.

Bell and Trott were two of four players retained from the Ashes Test side, along with stand-in skipper Paul Collingwood and Kevin Pietersen.

 
Yardy was the pick of England's bowlers with 3-33
Pietersen - another player hoping for a recall in the short-form of the game, after he was dropped for the recent one-day series with Pakistan - added 13 late on, before he was out lbw to Brett Lee, leaving Bell to fittingly strike the winning boundary.

Earlier, there was a somewhat rusty display from the England bowling attack, which included new arrivals Chris Woakes, Luke Wright, James Tredwell and Yardy.

It was the latter who emerged with the best figures of 3-33 in an innings that began almost an hour late due to rain.

Initially, Shazhad and Woakes struggled for rhythm and were wayward as captain Tim Paine and Usman Khawaja amassed an opening stand of 75 before the latter was caught and bowled by Tredwell for 22.

Yardy then came to the fore with a double breakthrough as he claimed the key wicket of Paine (50) and Alex Keath (15) with almost identical lbw decisions.

Shazhad bowled Ferguson - who made 39 - before Yardy claimed a third wicket when Tom Thornton offered a return catch, as the hosts stumbled to 179 for five.

However, some clean hitting from Dan Christian got the innings back on track before he was caught by Pietersen off Shazhad for 53.

Woakes returned and claimed two wickets - Sam Miller caught by Collingwood and James Pattinson caught by Wright - and Shazhad bowled Xavier Doherty, but Brett Lee's unbeaten 26 ensured a competitive total.

[The Left Side]

Nice knock that from Belly, wouldn't be wonderful to beat the aussies in all forms of cricket this winter!

[TheTimVilla]

I toyed with the idea of staying up to watch this, but I lost too much sleep over Christmas. Woke up just in time to see KP's brief knock, Bell get his century and us win the match. Good times.

In a way, I'm pleased to see Brett Lee fit and doubt he'll last too long before he breaks down again. On the other hand, he's quite useful!

We won comfortably - without Strauss, Anderson, Swann, Broad, etc. and we still had loads of batting left. Good times.

[PaulWinch again]

Hopefully we'll batter them in this series as well. I'm reasonably confident, we need to keep momentum for the World Cup.

[Warren Aspinall]

Great win for England, we seemed to be coasting & then made it hard for ourselves. 8 wins in a row now, great stuff.

[Villan For Life]

Good to see Woakes keeping a cool head at the death. He made a very encouraging debut.

[Dr Butler]

Superb win !   England seem to have that knack of just getting over the line when needed.

[peter w]

Made hard work of it if truth be told and Bell was very lucky to be dropped twice. Woakes did well at the death, and one poor over aside, did bowl well. Ring rust from the team and nothing more. I expect them to go on and win the next 20/20 now with ease.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Ice veins from Woakes.

Hats off to Shane Watson though, how gutting for him to have played that well and lost.

[taylorsworkrate]

Yeah really impressive from young Woakes. 

Obviously has a lot of potential, but crucially also a strong mentality. 

Should have won the game at a canter but hey, wouldn't have been as exciting.

[PaulWinch again]

Good to see England have developed the ability to win when we're not at our best.

[TheTimVilla]

Interesting to see what happens for the ODIs when Strauss comes back. Open with Bell & Strauss. KP 3, Colly 4, Morgan 5, Davies 6, Yardy 7, Bresnan 8, Swann 9, Woakes 10, Shahzad 11

[andrew08]

Ice veins from Woakes.

Just checked his profile on the Warwickshire website, sorry can't do links, he's a Villa Fan

[PaulWinch again]

Bit of a let down that, should have won easily.