Cricket - One Day Finals (Aus v England)

After the almost intrminable preliminaries Australia and England meet in the best of three One Day Internationals finals series. (50 overs each innings, maximum)

In the first of the matches held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground England beat Australia.

The result came as a surprise, (probably to most of the England team as well if you looked at their faces in the final few overs) but was a deserved win. Australia batted first and about halfway through their innings looked to be online fora score of over 300, however disaster struck, they fell away and ended with a disappointing 252 all out. England batted, started badly, then recovered with a fine performance by Paul Collingwood, and achieved the winning run with 3 balls to spare.

Makes the next match interesting
Next match wil be on Sunday at the SydneyCricket Ground.


Full Scorecard http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/australia/engine/match/249240.html

Regards
Bob

 

The Second Final .. ENGLAND WON AGAIN! - so no need for the third.

England won 2 games to 0 after a rain affected second final was decided using the Duckworth/Lewis calculation to work out the amended target for Australia. (No, I'm not going to try and explain the Duckworth/Lewis calculation - although anyone with a Doctorate in Matematics should be able to understand it ...)

Scores,
England 246 runs after 50 overs
Australia 152 runs after 27 overs, the target was 187 under the Duckworth/Lewis modified total.

The rain obviously didn't help, but Australia's only real excuse was that England outplayed them.

Disapointing from an Australian perspective, but means that the One Day World Cup in Cricket to be played in March in the West Indies suddenly seems alot more open and interesting. It has been shown that AUstralia can be beaten.

Full Scorecard http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/australia/engine/match/249241.html

Regards
Bob