The Times Sport - UK (2020-09-12)

2 2GS Saturday September 12 2020 | the times

WEEKEND

BRIEFING

Leading man

In two remarkable years the

obsessive originality of

Marcelo Bielsa has captivated

the city of Leeds but now he

must take on the Premier

League — starting at Anfield

this evening

PAGES 4-

Rip up rulebook

In the wake of the

controversy surrounding

Own Farrell’s punishment for

a high tackle Ben Kay argues

that it is time for fundamental

change in the way discipline

is handled in rugby union

PAGES 16-

I’ll tell you one

thing. I can write

three books of

what has

happened to me

THE DRAMATIC RETURN OF

VICTORIA AZARENKA, PAGE 18

‘Jagger. Not Messi’

When not masterminding

Wycombe’s rise through the

Football League, Gareth

Ainsworth fronts his own

band. Given the choice, he

says, he’d rather have been a

rock‘n’roll star

PAGE 12

Guess the season

Aldershot go bankrupt and

resign from the league in

mid-season;

Leeds win the league title

under Howard Wilkinson;

Wrexham knock Arsenal out

of the FA Cup

ANSWER, PAGE 15

TODAY

Tennis: US Open women’s final

Amazon Prime Video, 9pm

Liverpool v Leeds Utd

Sky Sports Main Event, 5pm

TOMORROW

Gallagher Premiership:

Wasps v Bristol Bears

BT Sport Extra, 12.30pm

2nd ODI: England v Australia

Sky Sports Cricket, 1pm

Tuscan Grand Prix

Sky Sports F1, 2.10pm

Tottenham v Everton

Sky Sp Main Event, 4.30pm

On the box

battle to a competitive score. Shortly

before the halfway point they were 123

for five when Mitchell Marsh was

joined by Glenn Maxwell, batting lower

than usual at No 7. Their partnership of

126 off 113 balls — the highest for

Australia’s sixth wicket in 150 ODIs

against England — reshaped the game.

Jofra Archer and Mark Wood, both of

whom would finish with three wickets

apiece, had given England the upper

hand. Archer gave David Warner torrid

time, snaking one ball past his outside

edge before finding a perfect length and

enough movement to beat the bat and

take the top of off stump.

Wood, bowling full enough to invite

the drive but fast enough to allow little

time for the necessary footwork,

extracted Finch and Marcus Stoinis,

who was standing in for the absent

Steve Smith. Both were caught behind

by Buttler, meaning the first three wick-

ets were entirely the work of the three

England players making their first ODI

appearances since the World Cup final.

No less striking was the impact of

Adil Rashid. He was to make liberal use

of his googly and it was evident that

several of the Australians could not

pick it. Rashid was to account for

Marnus Labuschagne, leg-before to the

wrong ’un, and Alex Carey, caught off a

top-edged sweep.

While Marsh played the anchor role

in an innings of 73 spanning 100 balls,

Maxwell moved nicely through the

gears. This was one of his best counter-

attacking innings, of 77 from 59 balls;

the only shame was that he did not kick

on when a second hundred in 101 ODI

innings was there for the taking.

He twice hit Rashid for six and played

two extraordinary shots for six off

Archer, before the bowler responded

with a slower ball which Maxwell

dragged into his stumps. Wood trapped

Marsh leg-before but the 40 balls after

Maxwell departed still yielded 45.

England gave it a very decent shot but

in the end there was to be no great

escape, no miracle. Floundering at 57

for four in the 17th over in pursuit of 295

— no side had ever successfully chased

down as many to win an ODI at Old

Trafford — they appeared to have no

chance, but Sam Billings entered to play

the innings of his life and took them

much closer than they could have

possibly imagined.

Sharing a stand of 113 in 115 balls with

Jonny Bairstow, who played a fine hand

of 84 from 107 balls, Billings showed the

coolest of heads in compiling his

maiden ODI century, despite strug-

gling early on to get the ball off the

square against tight bowling.

He managed 11 from 32 balls before

taking his first three boundaries off Pat

Cummins and from there he went from

strength to strength. When he was

eventually out to the last ball of the

innings he had made 118 off 110 balls. No

wonder the Australians shook his

hands as the players left the field, Aaron

Finch’s side relieved victors by 19 runs.

Billings scored 132 runs for once out

in three ODIs against Ireland but this

was a performance on another level

altogether by a player who would

certainly not have been playing had

Ben Stokes been available.

As with Zak Crawley in the most

recent Test match, this was another

coming-of-age innings from a Kent

player — as well as only the tenth ODI

century scored by an England No 6.

That five of the previous nine were

scored by Jos Buttler is an indication of

how hard this is to do.

The Bairstow-Billings rebuild was

painstaking. After 25 overs, England

were 96 for four, but the next ten overs

brought 73 runs. Bairstow had already

put away Cummins for six and was

starting to motor. It was then, in trying

to again get after Adam Zampa, whom

he had earlier hit out of the attack with

two sixes, that he holed out to long-on.

When Moeen Ali completed another

quiet game against Australia by

slapping to cover, and Josh Hazlewood

finished with exemplary figures of

three for 26, England headed into the

final ten overs needing another 105.

Thirty-three came off the next 20 balls

but when Chris Woakes was out

Billings was left with too much to do.

England are rightly famed for their

explosive starts so 22 for two off ten

overs — their lowest powerplay total

since 2006 — was an eyebrow-raiser,

even accounting for the quality of

Australia’s attack.

Jason Roy was playing his first

innings for England in more than a

month and it showed as he mustered

one scoring shot from 11 balls before

finally connecting with a straight drive

only to see Hazlewood cling on

one-handed low to his right. Joe Root

was similarly given nothing to work

with before tickling an attempted dab

into the wicketkeeper’s gloves.

If Finch kept on Hazlewood too long

— his eighth over cost 14 — it did not

matter when Zampa chipped in with

the huge wickets of Eoin Morgan, pull-

ing an innocuous delivery to mid-wick-

et, and Buttler, miscuing to long-off.

Make no mistake, Australia had to

Emirates Old Trafford (England won toss):

Australia beat England by 19 runs

“If Archer doesn’t get you, Wood will,”

remarked Nasser Hussain on the Sky

Sports commentary, possibly with a

nod to the famous Sydney Daily

Telegraph cartoon caption during the

1974-75 Ashes — “Ashes to Ashes,

dust to dust, if Thomson don’t get ya,

Lillee must.”

Jofra Archer and Mark Wood are

clearly not Dennis Lillee and Jeff

Thomson, but the point about a pair

of fast bowlers was valid. England

possess something very special in the

pace of Archer and Wood.

Hussain was speaking just as Wood

dismissed the Australia captain Aaron

Australia

Steve James says that

while Jofra Archer could

be irresistible, he

missed a trick with

rivals wobbling

Battling Billings falls

Simon

Wilde

England v Australia

First ODI scoreboard

AUSTRALIA R B

D A Warner

b Archer

6 14

*A J Finch

c Buttler b Wood

16 25

M P Stoinis

c Buttler b Wood

43 34

M Labuschagne

lbw b Rashid

21 30

M R Marsh

lbw b Wood

73 100

†A T Carey

c Billings b Rashid

10 10

G J Maxwell

b Archer

77 59

P J Cummins

c Morgan b Archer

9 7

M A Starc

not out

19 12

A Zampa

c and b Woakes

5 9

J Hazlewood

not out

0 0

Extras

(b 8, lb 2, w 5)

15

TOTAL (50 overs; 9 wkts) 294

Fall of wickets 1-13, 2-43, 3-80, 4-103,

5-123, 6-249, 7-259, 8-273, 9-

Bowling Woakes 10-0-59-1; Archer

10-0-57-3; Wood 10-0-54-3; Ali 10-0-59-0;

Rashid 10-0-55-

Umpires R Kettleborough and D

Millns (both Eng) TV Umpire M

Gough (Eng) Series details (all Old

Traffford): Second ODI Tomorrow

Third ODI Wednesday

ENGLAND R B

J J Roy

c and b Hazlewood

3 12

J M Bairstow

c Hazlewood b Zampa

84 107

J E Root

c Carey b Hazlewood

1 11

*E J G Morgan

c Maxwell b Zampa

23 18

†J C Buttler

c Labuschagne b Zampa

1 4

S W Billings

c Warner b Marsh

118 110

M M Ali

c Labuschagne b Hazlewood

6 13

C R Woakes

c Maxwell b Zampa

10 11

A U Rashid

c Maxwell b Cummins

5 5

J C Archer

not out

8 10

Extras

(lb 10, nb 1, w 5)

16

TOTAL (50 overs; 9 wkts) 275

M A Wood did not bat

Fall of wickets 1-7, 2-13, 3-55, 4-57, 5-170,

6-182, 7-223, 8-

Bowling Cummins 10-0-74-1; Hazlewood

10-3-26-3; Zampa 10-0-55-4; Stoinis 2-0-

15-0; Maxwell 3-0-19-0; Marsh 5-1-29-1;

Starc 10-0-47-0.

Warner is bowled

by Archer for six

as England’s pace

attack made a

good start