With only a few end-of-term slog-and-hopes to come, England's proper tour of Australia has finally concluded with yet another defeat. At least the ODIs have seen some closer contests than the Tests, and Alastair Cook can also cling to the Perth victory for some comfort. That, and the bowling performance which almost clinched another consolation triumph today in Adelaide.
Even Darren Lehmann voiced the opinion that it looked a 240-250 run pitch, crediting both sides' bowlers for making it such a hard-fought encounter of a 220 target. Broad, Jordan and Stokes put the brakes on the home team, forcing several batsmen to throw away their wickets in an attempt to escalate the scoring rate. George Bailey was the only man to pass 50 although some late blows from Faulkner gave him and his fellow seamers something to aim at.
Following Shane Watson, Ben Stokes became the second number three to fall for a duck. Bell made little impression, Cook scraped 39 but the dependable Eoin Morgan and Joe Root shared a valuable fourth wicket stand of 64 to keep hopes strong. Both departed in quick succession but when Buttler and Bresnan failed to stick around it was left to Ravi Bopara to steer England to the 24 runs needed at only a run a ball. That he was eventually declared to have been stumped by a Matthew Wade fumble may add to the conspiracy theories but it may not have cost England the game. Even in ultra-slow motion, the comparative positions of Bopara's toe and the temporarily-dislodged bail are so difficult to assess. Almost certainly the verdict would have gone the batsman's way in England but he was unlucky not to get the benefit of the doubt in Adelaide. Unfortunate but not 'robbed'!
So it's a 4-1 result, but had Ravi or any of the tail-enders struck a couple of boundaries today and James Faulkner found a fielder in the deep during his Brisbane blitz, England could well have been celebrating a series win, deflecting a lot of the criticism of Cook's captaincy and of the overall administration. As it happened, neither came to pass. On such ifs and buts can whole series depend, and that's what makes 50-over matches so entertaining. India and Australia may lead the ODI rankings but neither will have an easy ride in next year's World Cup. Remember, too, that Australia could afford to rotate their squad; only Finch, Bailey, Faulkner and Coulter-Nile played in all five.
So what have England learned about their players? Eoin Morgan and Stuart Broad may have emerged with reputations enhanced while Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler did enough to keep their places. Root, Bell and captain Cook were so-so and can probably just look forward to a rest without the axe hovering. As for Tim Bresnan, Ravi Bopara, Boyd Rankin and Chris Jordan, they need to produce some consistent performances if they are to be World Cup squad members. Jordan has some fans in the media but I'm yet to be convinced. The aforementioned quartet are in the T20 squad but a few good T20 sessions in the next week won't be enough for me, I'm afraid.
Australia have named a few unknown (to me) faces in their T20 XIV. It'll be interesting to see whether the names of Ben Cutting, Chris Lynn and James Muirhead can appear in bright lights alongside those of Faulkner, Clarke, Johnson, Haddin, Harris and Finch from the previous two months.
