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32nd over: England 164-6 (Malan 75, Jordan 1) Agar with his third wicket, making some amends to his economical pace by just two runs.
31st over: England 162-6 (Malan 74, Jordan 0) Malan manages to pick up a couple of doubles from Green to follow the over but England have been way off the mark today apart from Malan. Chris Jordan has the most T20 innings to bat.
WICKET! Dawson runs out (Agar) 11, England 158-6
A brilliant camp! direct hit Terrible running though. Dawson hits the ball on point and starts. Malan, to his credit, responds immediately and thus gets safely to the striker’s end. But that ball wasn’t likely to get past Agar, who stops it cleanly while on the move. Once the ball is in hand, Dawson gives up, slowing down to see if the pitch will hit or not. It does. Nobody on the stumps, Green has followed too far. But agar is good enough.
30th over: England 157-5 (Malan 70, Dawson 11) Agar returns. He bowled earlier, got hit once and was gone. Malan tries to play the first ball of the spin but gets the tip of the bat and kills the ball. So he backs off and cuts the next one… and hits the broom! This was very close to Stoinis but he hit too hard just behind his square position. Malan premeditates a reverse sweep, but it’s the wrong ball – on the leg-stump line, so he ends up cutting it off the bottom edge, beyond his off-stump, for example.
29th over: England 151-5 (Malan 65, Dawson 10) Cameron Green bowled four earlier and is back now. He’s using the short ball a lot, using his height in theory to make him hard to hit. Mostly it works. Still, full bowls for Malan, who usually plays the short stuff well. Four above.
28th over: England 147-5 (Malan 63, Dawson 8) Back to circumspection for Zampa, three singles away as the afternoon sun thickens in colour.
27th over: England 144-5 (Malan 62, Dawson 6) Follow-up from Malan, who has decided he can field the Australian captain. He drives it through cover for four, then plays the pick-up over deep square leg for another six. great shot This time he backs it up with a strike rotation and a dozen from the end to make him England’s best in the innings.
Half a century! Malan 50 off 64 balls
26th over: England 132-5 (Malan 51, Dawson 5) Dawson on his way, sweeping Zampa nicely for a somewhat lucky three runs. I could have let it go to pads or stumps. He has to stay here for Malan, who takes one and brings up fifty.
25th over: England 126-5 (Malan 49, Dawson 1) Pongo! A ball after getting past the outside edge, Cummins throws a bit and Malan hits it for six. Hello. Still, in typical Malan fashion, it’s the only scoring shot from outside.
24th over: England 120-5 (Malan 43, Dawson 1) It’s all Malan now. Not even half, and he will have to do his job with Liam Dawson, whose batting at this level you would describe as serviceable. And a chance for another wicket, as Malan hits the ball and it goes into Carey’s body. Too fast for the keeper to have no time to react.
WICKET! Buttler c Agar b Zampa 29, England 118-5
This is the only one! If Agar were to take a catch today, he would want it to be from Buttler. A bit of a back and forth from Zampa but still at a decent pace. Buttler stays to the leg side of the ball, opens the face of his bat and tries to get to deep cover. He plays it too straight though, and the long-on is able to get extra and take the catch. England now in real contention.
23rd over: England 118-4 (Malan 42, Buttler 29) Cummins returns and bowls an economical seven. I haven’t seen a big envelope of it yet. The longest so far was 11 runs, and that’s what Billings was sacked for. Stoinis returns to the field after dealing with his hand – he was hit by a ball while bowling earlier and hurt his fingers.
22nd over: England 111-4 (Malan 40, Buttler 25) Zampa continues, and Buttler wants to have a crack but can’t finish lining it up. Drives hard down the ground but finds the boundary rider for one, goes through covers but Labuschagne saves two.
21st over: England 105-4 (Malan 38, Buttler 21) Starc is still at it. Buttler is looking for full lengths and movement on him, Starc goes back of a length and cuts the ball. The edge is missing by a whisker. A wide one down the leg side, three singles from the top.
20th over: England 101-4 (Malan 37, Buttler 19) Leg-spin at last, with Zampa on. Malan hits his first ball very hard but straight to short cover again. Warner is still wringing his hands a few balls later. Malan reverses to the side of the ball, over mid-wicket for a risky couple. Two singles to follow, Zampa hitting a straight line on the stumps to make the stroke play difficult. Three figures for England, plenty of work left to do.
19th over: England 97-4 (Malan 34, Buttler 18) Agar in the air! He almost gets a crazy catch from Malan, who smashes Starc into the cut shot. Agar puts her fingertips on it, but can’t hold on when it hits the floor. Malan goes off strike, Buttler glances for a couple, just three from the top.
18th over: England 94-4 (Malan 33, Buttler 16) Another free for England, Stoinis over the line. Buttler smashes it, but down the ground to the sweeper at deep backward square. So you rarely see free kicks go far. Only singles on the other side.
17th over: England 88-4 (Malan 30, Buttler 14) Starc returns for his fifth over, and immediately the runs dry up. Two singles and a wide as the batsmen watch carefully. It’s still so early in the innings to be four under.
16th over: England 85-4 (Malan 29, Buttler 13) Cruise control started from Buttler. Lead Stoinis through the decks to the fence, along the tarmac. Labuschagne does some chasing, diving and sliding but can only hit it past the boundary pads.
15th over: England 79-4 (Malan 28, Buttler 8) Midway through the Green over, Malan finally gets a shot and hits the fence. Still there, building. He has had a calming influence as the wickets have fallen.
“It’s a shame Australians can’t watch their national team play at home freely,” he writes to Maureen Becquet. “Too bad TV chases $$$$.”
Hard to argue. The main people to look at are the people at Cricket Australia who negotiated the 2018 broadcast deal, which was full of flaws. Paying for these parties was also against anti-money laundering legislation, but the Communications Minister at the time didn’t bother to enforce it.
14th over: England 73-4 (Malan 23, Buttler 7) They have drinks after the wicket, as Jos Buttler comes into the middle. The most important portal of this English team, by far. Long time for him to express himself today, maybe too long. But he has already played well here in all formats – he hammered India’s bowlers in the semi-final of the T20 World Cup and almost saved last season’s Ashes Test here by batting most of the fifth day.
Shows what he can do first up here, casually lifting Stoinis from long on to mid-point for four. Deep cover, deep third, deep backward, deep midwicket four off Buttler.
WICKET! Billings b Stoinis 17, England 66-4
On the attack, in the game! Marcus Stoinis is run down the ground for four first balls, but follows through with a beauty. Opener, brought into the pitch, seaming in an angle, hitting the inside edge and hitting the stumps.
13th over: England 57-3 (Malan 23, Billings 13) A mid-on shot from Malan, putting Green away for two runs through midwicket, then touches and misses outside his off stump as Green gets a good bounce in this quarter strain line. . Billings, undeterred, tries a shot of his own and mishits this one, sending it to the short side but safely into the grass.
12th over: England 57-3 (Malan 20, Billings 11) Spins into the attack, Agar looks to bowl it, and Malan is immediately on the attack. Goes outside off stump and hits a flat hard sweep through square leg for four.
11th over: England 49-3 (Malan 14, Billings 9) First ten overs gone, meaning four fielders can go outside the circle. Australia are left with three, keeping two slips. Green does a decent job, Billings leaves him like it’s a test match, only playing a scoring stroke at the end.
10th over: England 47-3 (Malan 14, Billings 7) Great shot from Billings! Drives up, after Cummins gets it to a good length. Straight past the bowler for four. Cummins responds by driving straight past the outside edge for the umpteenth time today. He looks much more dangerous in the longer formats than T20. To underline it, he crushes Malan on the pads, the appeal is turned down and, coming from the wicket, Cummins thinks it might be a touch outside leg to the left. He’s right, by a few millimeters. So is the referee. Last ball of the over, Malan throws his bat to a fraction of width and cuts four points.
9th over: England 38-3 (Malan 10, Billings 2) Green arrives at the first change of bowl, and there is a release of pressure. He edged Malan and he wide of mid-off for four. Long pursuit here fruitless. Green is also pinged for a retrospective no-ball, but his free-kick is a good bounce that Malan can’t hit. The number three thinks he has another boundary after breaking the ball square off his pads, but Agar launches and fields exceptionally, denies any run and almost runs out Malan who had taken a couple of steps down the track.
8th over: England 33-3 (Malan 6, Billings 2) Cummins is on a roll! Keep hitting that good length and making things happen. He brings one of Billings’ mitts closer and gets another one past the rim. A couple of runs through the midwife are the only ones on the top.