England limp to defeat at Lord's
Paul Collingwood's 56 was not enough
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By Darren Estwick. |  |
Sunday, 06, Sep 2009 06:00
By Will Haine.
Australia went 2-0 up in the Natwest one-day series against England after winning by 39 runs at Lord's.
The visitors made 249-8 from their 50 overs thanks to 55 from Callum Ferguson and a brisk 43 from Mitchell Johnson.
But England were favorites going into their innings and Andrew Strauss (47) and Ravi Bopara (27) set an early platform.
However, wickets fell at steady intervals and England's reluctance to take their batting powerplay was ulimately their undoing, despite a typically gritty 56 from Paul Collingwood.
England had made two changes to the side which narrowly lost at the Oval, with Tim Bresnan replacing the injured Stuart Broad and Adil Rashid controversially missing out in favour of more batting depth in the form of Eoin Morgan.
Strauss won the toss and put Australia into bat with conditions looking overcast and the ball being expected to swing.
It did just that, with Ryan Sidebottom in particular finding plenty of movement off the straight in a tight opening spell.
Australia made steady, if not slow, progress before Shane Watson hit an uppish drive off the bowling of Tim Bresnan to a sprawling Luke Wright in the covers with the Sussex man taking an impressive catch.
Opening partner Tim Paine soon followed as Wright this time picked up the wicket thanks to a catch by Morgan in the deep after a sluggish knock from the Aussie wicketkeeper.
Michael Clarke made just four when he top-edged Wright to Matt Prior behind the stumps. England were now in the ascendency with their opponents 73-3.
It was then down to Cameron White and Ferguson, who was man-of-the-match at the Oval, to rebuild the innings.
White fell to Ravi Bopara's first delivery when on 42 and Michael Hussey was bowled by a Graeme Swann beauty, to leave Australia on 155-5.
James Hopes was then lbw to Swann and Brett Lee was caught off Ryan Sidebottom before Johnson ensured Australia finished strongly with a his 43 coming from just 23 balls.
It was a good bowling effort from England and 250 to win was certainly a gettable target.
The hosts moved to 74 before Bopara was lbw to Shane Watson and Matt Prior (1) edged behind off the same bowler moments later.
Andrew Strauss looked in fine fettle before he ballooned a return catch to Nathan Hauritz just three runs short of a half-century.
The flurry of wickets continued when Owais Shah was run-out for 12 after a terrible mix-up with Paul Collingwood. England had now lost four wickets for 23 runs.
When Eoin Morgan (14) fell, England were still in a good position on 129-5 just past the half-way stage. Luke Wright then chipped in with a breezy 20 and, even when Tim Bresnan went with the score 168-7, England would have fancied their chances.
Collingwood and Swann continued to rotate the strike, with the option of taking the batting powerplay looking likely to come at any moment but it was not taken until six overs were left and Swann and Sidebottom had perished in the same Nathan Bracken over.
Collingwood was cleaned-up by a Brett Lee yorker shortly after and England were left to rue not using the powerplay when they had two set batsmen at the crease.
Andrew Strauss' men will now look to the Rose Bowl on Wednesday to record their first win of the seven-match series.