England 312 for 5 (Brook 87, Duckett 63, Livingstone 62*) vs Australia
After a relatively sedate start by the top order, Brook emerged and was in supreme touch following his hundred in Durham. On 17 he glanced Mitchell Starc down the leg side and was given out, but Brook queried if the chance had carried and the umpires referred. The replays showed the ball had bounced fractionally before Josh Inglis’ gloves, the wicketkeeper having returned from a quad injury.
The crowd booed as the pictures came on the big screen, accompanied by a few chants of ‘same old Aussies, always cheating’, but it was a tame, brief interlude compared to the Ashes Test. Brook cruised to a 37-ball fifty, adding 79 in 53 balls for the third wicket with Ben Duckett and 75 in 47 with Jamie Smith for the fourth, as England went through the gears. Livingstone capped off a strong batting performance with a mighty display of striking with included four sixes off the last over bowled by Starc with the 28 runs, the most expensive over ever by an Australian bowler in men’s ODIs.
England were unchanged as they aimed to send the series to a decider while Australia brought in Inglis, Travis Head and Adam Zampa, the latter two having missed Durham due to rest and illness respectively. Alex Carey retained his place after back-to-back half-centuries meaning Australia included both their ‘keepers.
Under heavy cloud, the ball nipped around early and England were only 35 without loss after the eight-over powerplay. Phil Salt fell shortly after, skewing the excellent Josh Hazlewood to backward point, and Will Jacks picked out the same fielder to give Mitchell Marsh a wicket in his second over – the first he had bowled since April 3.
Brook skipped out of the blocks with three leg-side boundaries before his near-dismissal and England’s momentum built. Sean Abbott’s expensive series continued – by the end of the innings his combined figures for three outings were 19.4-0-165-0 – while both Brook and Duckett took on Zampa. Duckett sent him over long-on for six and the next ball, he went to a hard-working 51-ball half-century before top-edging the legspinner to deep backward square.
Smith continued the aggressive approach to Zampa, sending him over wide long-on, and Brook added a second six in the same over to deep midwicket. A moment of absent-mindedness nearly cost Brook on 72 when he only just avoided being run out when he didn’t run his bat in at the non-striker’s end, although the ball ended up costing Australia six runs as the deflection went to the rope. Brook was challenging for England’s fastest ODI hundred at Lord’s – 61 balls by Jos Buttler – but picked out Glenn Maxwell at long-on.
Smith fell in the next over, slicing Maxwell to short third, before Livingstone provided stunning late power. A huge blow over midwicket off Hazlewood was followed by the dismantling of Starc’s figures, leaving Australia a huge task to wrap up the series before Bristol.