Australia picked up from where they left in ODI cricket in Ahmedabad last year where they won the World Cup as Travis Head was the centurion once again, Marnus Labuschagne was unbeaten at the end, it was the 19th of the month against a team in blue. Okay, let's not go there but yes, Australia chased down 316 runs in a canter on a good surface at Trent Bridge to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match ODI series against England on Thursday, September 19.
Travis Head smashed his sixth ODI century, and is just having a sort of period any sportsperson would envy him to have that. Head, who in the last 15 months has a WTC final century, World Cup final century, an IPL ton and several other records to his name across all formats, continued his stellar run with the bat at the top in the first ODI while Labuschagne impacted the game in ways which every all-rounder dreams of.
Introduced in the 33rd over of England's innings, Labuschagne was taken for a few boundaries, the perks of being a part-timer, but with the ball gripping in the surface just a bit he worked his magic. Having played the County Championship and the T20 Blast in England for the last few months, Labuschagne has been playing in the country for some time and has gotten used to the wickets.
Labuschagne sent back both the set batters Ben Duckett and England skipper Harry Brook in consecutive overs caught and bowled to peg the hosts back. Labuschagne accounted for Jofra Archer's wicket as well late in the innings as he ended up with three wickets and four catches to his name.
To add to his heroics in the field, Labuschagne smashed an unbeaten 77 off just 61 balls recovering from an iffy start to cap off a magnificent outing personally. Labuschagne became the first cricketer in ODI history to score a fifty and take three wickets and four catches in a single game.
Head stayed unbeaten on 154* off just 129 deliveries as Australia made short work of the run-chase. England will rue their chances as at 168/1 in the 25th over, the hosts were cruising and would have targeted at least 350 but missed out and folded for 315 with Australian spinners doing the magic. Even Head took a couple of wickets with Adam Zampa taking three.
