Key events
25th over: England 202-3 (Duckett 84) Steve Smith decided the time was right to bring back Zampa, and may have regretted it as Brook hit the first two balls of the over for six – a straight drive, then a slog-sweep off a full toss. Zampa fought back well, showed some guts and floated the last ball up, luring Brook into a skyer to long-off. But that was still a fabulous knock from Brook, who added 72 off 52 balls to his 110* and 87.
WICKET! Brook c Maxwell b Zampa 72 (England 202-3)
The big one!
24th over: England 188-2 (Duckett 83, Brook 59) Duckett swings Maxwell back over his head for six. It’s all going swimmingly for England – but …
“From here in west Cornwall,” says Gregor Salsa, “I can report that the rain has been hammering down since at least 7am. Driven by 40-50mph winds.
“The wind has dropped a bit. It’s merely drenching rain now. So it should be at Bristol around 4pm. I’d start the DLS calculations.”
23rd over: England 177-2 (Duckett 74, Brook 58) Connolly, who was taken off after conceding 12 in his first over, returns and does well apart from one ball, which Duckett pulls for four.
22nd over: England 171-2 (Duckett 68, Brook 57) Maxwell continues and thinks he’s done well, going for a few singles, until the last ball. Brook switches his hands, chip-sweeps it over cover point, gets four and brings up the hundred partnership – 101 off 80 balls. It’s been thrilling stuff.
21st over: England 163-2 (Duckett 66, Brook 51) Smith thinks better of his all-spin menu and dishes up some sfast-medium from Hardie. As when he started his first spell, he takes some punishment, pulled for four by Duckett, then whipped for six by Brook.
I’m not sure which is faster, Brook’s eye or his hands, but the combination can be exhilarating. That whip takes him to a third successive fifty, off 39 balls with two fours and five sixes. And he began by playing himself in!
20th over: England 151-2 (Duckett 61, Brook 44) Duckett, in the mood now, cuts Maxwell for four. Phil Salt played so well today, yet he’s probably behind Duckett in the race to be Jos Buttler’s opening partner for the Champions Trophy in Pakistan in February.
19th over: England 144-2 (Duckett 55, Brook 43) What would you if your star spinner had gone for 30 off two overs? Smith takes Zampa off and turns to his third spinner, Cooper Connolly, the slow left-armer making his ODI debut. The batters take half an over to have a look at him and then Duckett tucks in. A dance down the track brings a drop-kick four and takes him to fifty off 45 balls. He celebrates with a reverse slog-sleep for four more. “His head,” says Eoin Morgan, “is so still.”
18th over: England 132-2 (Duckett 45, Brook 41) The Aussies need to calm things down and Glenn Maxwell manages it, going for just four singles – quite an achievement for a first over with cold hands. But the partnership has sailed past 50. It’s 62 now off 56 balls.
Six, six, six from Brook
17th over: England 128-2 (Duckett 43, Brook 39) Zampa’s first over went for 12. His second goes for 18 – in three strokes. Brook pulls the first ball over midwicket, slog-sweeps the third into the city centre, and dances down to loft the fifth just over the man at long-on. Sensational stuff.
16th over: England 110-2 (Duckett 43, Brook 21) Starc bowls a very good over and gets no credit for it in the scorebook. First he tests Brook’s Achilles heel with a fine bouncer, fended away for a streaky single. Then he lures Duckett into a nick that would be a simple catch for first slip if there was one. Starc’s figures, 5-0-38-0, are a travesty.
“The Australian mindset when it comes to decisive matches is something out of the orbit,” says Krish Krishnamoorthy. “Remember the WC 2023 final, facing India in a stadium of nearly 100,000 screaming local fans. And they barely broke a sweat.
“The only result I see is a 3-2 series win for Australia. (Else, I know, humble pie tastes sweet.)”
15th over: England 102-2 (Duckett 37, Brook 19) Another bowling change as Hardie gives way to Adam Zampa for the first slow stuff of the day. The batters treat him with due respect for the first four balls, and then Brook lets rip. A late cut for four, so late it could be the work of Joe Root, and then a six as Zampa goes full and Brook belts him over long-on: two clear signs of a man in form. That’s drinks with England perhaps inching ahead again after being pegged back.
14th over: England 90-2 (Duckett 36, Brook 8) Hazlewood gets a break at last as Starc returns for a second spell. He keeps Brook honest, restricts him to two from a square drive, and hits him on the knee with the last ball. As he takes a leg-bye, Brook is hobbling like an old man.
13th over: England 87-2 (Duckett 36, Brook 6) Hardie continues as Smith bids for a new world record for the fewest bowling changes in an autumnal ODI. Hardie beats Duckett, who retorts with a clip off the toes that nearly goes for four – well fielded by the sweeper. Hardie, who took 0-18 off his first five balls, has 2-8 off the last 19. Which is admirable, but it makes you wonder if both captains may regret going in with only three seamers.
12th over: England 83-2 (Duckett 33, Brook 5) Hazlewood is still on. Is Smith planning to bowl him out? Or does he just fancy him to take out England’s best batter? Brook finally gets off the mark, taking a single with that open face of his, and then he changes gear and plays a delicate paddle-ramp for four. Game on.
11th over: England 77-2 (Duckett 32, Brook 0) Hardie demonstrates his resilience again. Duckett hits his first ball for four with a back-foot drive, but then come five dots. The run rate, which was up at 8.75, is now 7.
“Morning Tim,” says Simon McMahon. “Athers, if I can be so bold as to call him that, studiously avoiding referring to the ‘Toblerone’ after a six from Salt that clattered straight into it, preferring ‘boundary rope’ instead. #oldschool.” Ha, yes. But it’s not a rope, is it?
10th over: England 73-2 (Duckett 28, Brook 0) Smith keeps Hazlewood on, perhaps because of Hardie’s sudden improvement. Duckett drives him for three, finding a narrow channel between cover and short extra. Harry Brook, so central to England’s resurgence in the past week, flirts with disaster as he opens the face and almost gets caught at gully. The Powerplay ends with honours just about even.
9th over: England 70-2 (Duckett 25, Brook 0) That is a wicket maiden from Aaron Hardie, and a superb comeback. His first five balls went like this: 66114. And the next seven? W…W..
WICKET! Jacks b Hardie 0 (England 70-2)
Bowled through the gate! By a ball that jagged back in from outside off.
8th over: England 70-1 (Duckett 25, Jacks 0) So an innings from Salt that could have been a classic ends up as just a very good cameo – 45 off 27 balls with five fours and three sixes. But he has set the tone for his team, who have to rattle along at a T20 pace today because the game may well end up in the hands of Duckworth-Lewis.
Duckett moves into the driving seat now, lofting Hazlewood over mid-on and then getting lucky with a big fat nick through the gap at second slip. His 25 has come off 21 balls with five fours.
WICKET! Salt c Labuschagne b Hardie 45 (England 58-1)
7th over: England 58-1 (Duckett 13) Steve Smith makes his first change, replacing Starc with Aaron Hardie. Salt pulls his first ball for six! Knowing the next ball will be fuller, he chips it into the Toblerone at long-on for six more! That brings up England’s fifty, 52 off only 38 balls. After a couple of singles, Salt makes room to cut for four with fast hands – and then gets out, caught low down by the cover sweeper as he slices a square drive.
6th over: England 40-0 (Salt 28, Duckett 12) A graphic has just shown us that in the Powerplay, Hazlewood bowls the same length all the time – aiming for good, sometimes back-of, occasionally a touch fuller. The first ball of this over is at the short end of his range, and Duckett does well to pull it for four.
5th over: England 34-0 (Salt 27, Duckett 7) After going a full five balls without a boundary, Salt is becoming impatient. He charges at Starc, swings the bat, slices the ball and gets six over first slip. Atherton produces another factoid: Salt plays and misses 16pc of the time, which is more than any other top-five batter in men’s ODIs, apparently. He doesn’t give a timespan but still, that’s quite a stat. And, in its way, quite a skill.
4th over: England 24-0 (Salt 18, Duckett 6) Hazlewood puts the plug in as this over goes for just a single. He even persuades Duckett to leave one.
3rd over: England 23-0 (Salt 17, Duckett 6) Starc manages three dots and two singles, one of them a leading edge from Duckett that wasn’t far from being a caught-and-bowled. But then Starc strays onto the pads and Duckett comes to the party with a lofted flick for four. On a cold day, dotted with beanie hats, it’s been a breezy start.
“Do you know if there is an overseas TMS link for today?” asks Matt Dale. “I can’t seem to find it on the BBC website.” Hoping the hive mind can help.
2nd over: England 17-0 (Salt 16, Duckett 1) Ben Duckett gets off the mark less flamboyantly, with a nudge to leg for a single off Hazlewood. Salt is beaten again, perilously close to the off bail, as Hazlewood finds a classic length and some movement off the seam. But Salt hits back with a lofted square drive. He already has four fours, which is one more than ten of the Aussies managed at Lord’s between them (Head four, the rest three).
1st over: England 12-0 (Salt 12, Duckett 0) Well, well. Salt plays another cracking cover drive off the last ball, and in the middle he guides the ball past the slips. So this over looks like a triumph for England. But the guide was jammy – Salt seemed to be pulling the bat away – and he also played and missed, twice. So honours were actually even, whatever the scoreboard has to say.
1st ball: England 4-0 (Salt 4, Duckett 0) In comes Mitch Starc, curls the ball back in towards off stump – and sees it fly through the covers for four as Phil Salt finds the middle of the bat. An opening gambit from the Zak Crawley handbook.
An email! “Factoid,” says Mark Hooper. Do I detect some scepticism in the air? “The latest as in the most recent? Amazing! (I know, etc)“ Ha.
A couple of factoids for you. One from Mike Atherton, so good at adding facts to all the opinions on Sky: this is the latest international game ever played in England. And one from me: it’s Steve Smith’s first outing as Australia’s captain since … February 2024, when he led them in three ODIs against West Indies.
Teams in full
England 1 Phil Salt, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Will Jacks, 4 Harry Brook (capt), 5 Jamie Smith (wkt), 6 Liam Livingstone, 7 Jacob Bethell, 8 Brydon Carse, 9 Matthew Potts, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Olly Stone.
Australia 1 Travis Head, 2 Matthew Short, 3 Steve Smith (capt), 4 Josh Inglis (wkt), 5 Marnus Labuschagne, 6 Glenn Maxwell, 7 Aaron Hardie, 8 Cooper Connolly, 9 Mitch Starc, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Josh Hazlewood.
Teams in brief: no Jofra, no Carey
Jofra Archer, so good at Lord’s the other night, is overdue for a breather, so Olly Stone comes in to join Brydon Carse and Matthew Potts.
For Australia, Alex Carey and Sean Abbott join Mitch Marsh on the sidelines. Aaron Hardie and Cooper Connolly come in, so Hardie will be the third seamer, behind Mitch Starc and Josh Hazlewood, and Connolly will join Glenn Maxwell and Travis Head in the queue to fiddle through a few overs.
Australia win the toss and bowl
A grey morning, with rain around later: no captain would bat first today. It’s a big toss to win … and the Australian captain calls right. Hang on, he looks familiar – it’s Steve Smith!
It’s also the last day of the County Championship. Do keep a window open on your browser for Tanya Aldred, the queen of the county scene. Start at the bottom with a post so succinct that it may one day be held up as a model at preamble school.
Preamble
Morning everyone and welcome to the last stop on a long and winding road. It’s the end of the home international cricket season, the final act of the drama, the fifth set of the match. It could be anything from a cliffhanger to a damp squib.
England have to beat Australia for the third time in a week to complete a barnstorming comeback. Australia have to remember how experienced they are and put these upstarts in their place. And both sides have to beat the weather, which is looking dodgy all day and downright dismal from mid-afternoon.
The captains should really meet in the middle now and agree to play a T25. But that might require a better relationship between cricket and common sense.
All being well, the toss is at 10.30am BST.