Australia avoided the shame of an England whitewash in the One Day International series, clawing back a win at the Oval to 3-1 overall and deservedly so.
If the Australian’s found something close to their best form at the Oval, England’s luck seemed to have deserted them at times and captain Andrew Strauss blamed a ‘return to bad habits’ for the 78 run defeat.
The Australian’s put on 290 for 5 with the bat with both Michael Clarke (99 not out) and Ricky Ponting (92) starring, but England’s belief that they could chase the Aussie total down was misguided as the batting order collapsed around their ears.
Fast bowler Ryan Harris picked up 5 wickets for Australia at the expense of just 32 runs as only Michael Yardy could get past the 50 mark for England, scoring 57 runs.
While it was a poor effort from the England batsmen, Australia harried them into mistakes with some sharp bowling and fielding throughout the session and thoroughly deserved the win skittling England for 212 in 42.4 overs.
Andrew Strauss said;
“It was not so good today. I thought we could chase 290 but we lost too many wickets too early. It was a disappointing day, but you have to put it in the context of the series. We have had a lot of good days so far and we want to finish well.
We certainly want to finish the series 4-1 instead of 3-2 and finish well. As for personnel we’ll have to see how the players are tomorrow.”
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