AUS vs ENG, 2nd ODI | Who said what ft. Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc
Australia, led by Josh Hazlewood, defeated England by 72 runs on Saturday at the SCG in the second ODI to win the three-match series with a match to spare. Batting first, Steve Smith’s excellent 114-ball 94 led the Aussies to close on 280/8 before they bowled out England for 208 in 38.5 overs.
Steve Smith set the platform for Australia, stitching a 101-run stand with Marnus Labuschagne (58 off 55 balls) and a 90-run stand with Mitchell Marsh (50 off 59 balls) to help his side post a challenging total after Josh Hazlewood opted to bat. In reply, England, despite batting deep, could only muster 208 in 38.5 overs before losing all ten wickets. James Vince (60 off 72 balls) and Sam Billings (71 off 80 balls) were the only English batters who made significant contributions while the others gave them little support.
Josh Hazlewood, who returned figures of 7-1-33-2 on his captaincy debut, was pleased with the way his side performed on his special day.
It looks easy to bat on when a partnership is going. But only a wicket away from causing a collapse on such a pitch. Very happy with 280. It's good fun having captaincy. WIll obviously hand it back to Pat (Cummins) for the last game. Will see what Melbourne dishes out. He said he's back (Steve Smith). Summer looks good for him.
After taking two wickets in the opening over, Mitchell Starc finished with 4/47, which played a pivotal role in England's collapse from 156/3 to 189/8.
(On Josh Hazlewood) We saw through the first innings, the wicket was slow, we needed to be accurate, he is one of the best in this format and he showed as to why he's so highly regarded. (On Adam Zampa) He's so clinical in pressure situations, brings up back into the game time and again, it was nice for him to snare 4 wickets, he's been so wonderful for us.
Starc was ably assisted by Adam Zampa, who picked up 4/45 from his 9.5 overs, was delighted to beat England days after they were crowned the double World Champions.
It's a series win, that's important to us against a good England side. Vince and Billings today, looked like it was going to be tough but we got a couple of big wickets. It was a hard wicket to start on. It was going to swing early, we felt the wicket was up and down. Knew reverse swing would come in later, and we made it tough for them. We're disappointed with how the World Cup went, England deserved to win but it's nice to get this series.
England's skipper Jos Buttler was rested for this encounter, and in his absence, Moeen Ali took charge to lead them. However, the contest did not go in Moeen's favour and the English all-rounder highlighted how poor they were lately to get the job done.
Were in a good position with the bat but we lost wickets. Rash bowled well in the middle phase. We pulled it back nicely. The wicket actually got easier to bat on but we lost wickets. It's just one of those things. They bowled well in that phase. Pressure got to us. If you lose wickets regularly, not going to win many games. Will just try to win (in the third ODI), and get on the flight on a positive note.