England vs Australia 2nd ODI Highlights | ENG vs AUS 2012

Following a close win in the opening ODI, England will be looking to press forward when they take on Australia in the second match of the series at The Oval. Australia, meanwhile, will be keen to register their first win and get their campaign back on track.

England:

England, who have a chance to overthrow Australia from the top position in the ODI rankings if they manage a clean-sweep, started the series on the right note with a 15-run win at Lord’s. England’s top order batsmen, barring Ravi Bopara, were amongst the runs as the hosts put up a challenging total. Eoin Morgan impressed the most with an attacking 89 while Jonathan Trott chipped in with an useful half-century. The openers were in good form too with Alastair Cook and Ian Bell starting well before falling in the forties. Skipper Cook’s only disappointment would probably have been that he and Bell could not convert their start into a bigger score. He will look to improve upon his own performance and also hope for a good showing from the rest of his batters heading into the second ODI.

In the bowling department, it was the seamers who were amongst the wickets in the first ODI, with James Anderson, Steven Finn, Tim Bresnan and Stuart Broad picking up two wickets each. Despite couple of good partnerships by the Australian batsmen during the course of the game, the England bowlers did not give up attacking and their persistence resulted in the visitors losing wickets at regular intervals. Cook will be expecting a similar performance from his bowlers in the second match and will also hope that Anderson and Bresnan, who were a touch expensive in the first game, come up with a more economical spell with the ball.

Australia:

Despite half-centuries from David Warner and Michael Clarke, the Aussies ended up short of the target at Lord’s mainly due to the failure of some of the batsmen who could not convert their starts. Australia also missed a substantial partnership. Although their were a couple of fifty run stands, one involving Warner and one Clarke, they lost many wickets in between those partnerships. While Shane Watson failed at the top, the middle order, which includes the likes of David Hussey, Steven Smith and Matthew Wade, could not support their skipper, who appeared waging a losing battle. Clarke would have also been disappointed with his own batting as he could not stay till the end to see his team through. The skipper will expecting his batters to quickly fix these chinks and come up with better contributions in the remaining games.

Clarke will also be hoping for a better performance from his bowlers as most of them went in excess of 5 an over. Shane Watson was the most expensive, giving away 65 runs from his 10 overs while Brett Lee too had an average outing, picking up just one wicket while conceding 57 runs from his 10. Pat Cummings also did not impress in his outing. Only Clint McKay managed to maintain an economy rate of 4.3. The bowlers need to stick to better line and lengths if they are to restrict the England batsmen and make an impact.