1st ODI: Sam Billings maiden ton in vain as Australia beat England by 19 runs to take 1-0 lead
Josh Hazlewood bowled brilliantly for 3-26 and took a diving catch for the key wicket of Jonny Bairstow to help Australia beat England by 19 runs despite a maiden century by Sam Billings in their One Day International on Friday.
Needing a record chase at Old Trafford of 295 to win, England were reduced to 13-2 by Hazlewood and then 57-4 when legspinner Adam Zampa took two of his four wickets.
Bairstow (84) and Sam Billings (118 off 109 balls) put on 103 for the fifth wicket, but their partnership ended when Hazlewood got across to his right in cow corner to take a catch on the dive to remove Bairstow.
Billings pushed through for a defiant and innovative hundred but ran out of time in the face of some solid bowling under the lights, eventually losing his wicket off the final ball of the match. England finished on 275-9.
Hazlewood bowled so well early that he was given eight straight overs at the top of the innings, after which he had 2-21 with three maidens.
“There was a little bit there with the new ball and I made the most of it,” said the paceman, who is a mainstay in the test team but sometimes rested in white-ball cricket. “I was lucky to get a couple of early ones and keep them under pressure.”
Australia took the lead in the three-match series against the world champions without star batsman Steve Smith, who was rested as a precaution after being hit on the head in the nets on Thursday. Smith has passed a concussion test and will be assessed again on Saturday ahead of the second match in Manchester on Sunday.
Put into bat in the teams’ first ODI since last year’s World Cup, Australia was also in trouble — though not in quite so grave a position as England — at 123-5 in the 24th over but recovered thanks to a stand of 126 runs by Glenn Maxwell (77 off 59 balls) and Mitch Marsh (73).
They gradually turned the pressure back on the bowlers. Marsh played an important anchor role while Maxwell opened up, hitting spinner Adil Rashid twice over the fence. The next ball after his second six earned Maxwell his 20th ODI fifty.
Maxwell hit paceman Jofra Archer for consecutive sixes in the 44th over but chopped the next ball on. Following his first fifty in 2½ years, Marsh departed lbw to Mark Wood to end an innings that included six boundaries.
Mitchell Starc smashed a last-ball six to finish 19 not out and set England a highly competitive total on a slow pitch, the type England sometimes struggles on — as acknowledged by captain Eoin Morgan before the match.
Jason Roy (3) and Joe Root (1) missed the recent T20 series between the teams and were out cheaply to Hazlewood, who caught and bowled Roy and got an edge behind off Root. Root, in particular, was worked over by the fast bowler before his almost inevitable demise.
Dangermen Morgan (23) and Jos Buttler (1) then fell to Zampa, meaning England was always well behind.
Bairstow dug in to reach his 13th and slowest ODI fifty — off 78 balls — before opting to go for some big hits to keep the run rate manageable. He’d hit four sixes by the time he holed out to Hazlewood off Zampa.
After Moeen Ali departed for 6 to give Hazlewood his third wicket, Australia was into the tail and was never really in danger of letting England back into the match.
Billings was playing in the absence of Ben Stokes — one of just two players missing from England's World Cup-winning lineup — and took his rare chance.
“I’m obviously very pleased, but in a losing cause it’s mixed feelings," Billings said.
“It is one of the hardest teams in world sport to get into at the moment. I've put too much pressure on myself in the past."
