Turns out ring-rustiness is just for mortals. Jos Buttler, playing his first competitive game since mid-August, returned in remorseless, exhilarating style to thrash 68 runs off 32 deliveries. He kickstarted a match of broken records, explosive hitting and an inevitable sprinkle of controversy to help England score what proved, if only just, a match‑winning total.
But David Warner once again demonstrated that he is second to nobody when it comes to belligerence as he powered Australia towards a distant target.
Never daunted by the need to score 209 – which would have been the hosts’ highest successful run chase on home soil – there was a time after he was joined by Marcus Stoinis, who scored a thrilling 35 off 15, when it seemed England had no way to stop their surge. In the end neither player could sustain their excellence quite long enough, both falling off successive Mark Wood overs.
When Warner was caught for 73 in the deep off the final ball of the 17th over the crowd – 25,755 people, enough to sell out Old Trafford but made to look a little sparse in this excellent but enormous stadium – seemed to audibly deflate.
But if that moment felt decisive it was only midway through Sam Curran’s final over, when Matthew Wade dumped the ball into the hands of Ben Stokes at deep midwicket, that the game tipped conclusively in the tourists’ favour. Australia eventually fell eight runs short.
“It was a great game,” Buttler said. “It was great to be back out there playing cricket again. I think we were behind for quite a bit of that second innings, Australia seemed to have it under control and we needed to find ways of taking wickets. We did that, and it showed great character. We can take some really good confidence from that.”
In a match of returns and of rockets Alex Hales made a compelling and possibly conclusive argument for a place alongside his captain at the top of the order. He accelerated after a comparatively sluggish start – bearing in mind that Buttler was the comparator – to end with 84 off 51. His role in England’s second-highest opening partnership, and the highest ever scored in Australia, should keep him ahead of Phil Salt in this particular duel.
“Things change quickly in sport but he’s got the first crack at it at the minute,” Buttler said. “It was a very tough call. We spent a lot of time debating it and it was only Alex’s record in Australia that got him ahead. That’s the reason he got the nod.”
Given the number of sweet strikes that illuminated the evening it is ironic that perhaps the most memorable shot of all was a looping top edge.
In the 17th over of Australia’s innings, with the match in the balance and tension spiralling, the ball flew off Wade’s bat, flicked his helmet and did likewise. Wood continued his follow-through intending to take the catch only for Wade to throw out his left arm to block his path.
A clearer case of obstructing the field can scarcely be imagined, but England’s appeal consisted of little more than a couple of optimistic looks at the umpires, who for some reason completely ignored it. Had the same player’s shot in the final over gone for six, rather than to Ben Stokes, this might have become a memorable controversy.
“They [the umpires] asked if we wanted to appeal but I said no,” Buttler said. “I had my eyes on the ball so I didn’t really see what happened, so I just thought we should get on with the game.”
Stoinis felt Wade deserved the benefit of the doubt on the grounds that “it’s chaos when you’re hit on the head and you’re running around and you don’t know where the ball is”.
Nathan Ellis was by a margin the night’s outstanding bowler. He might be familiar to England’s players after his role in Hampshire Hawks’ victory in this year’s T20 Blast, but that did not mean they had any idea how to play him. Ellis took three wickets including that of Buttler while conceding just five an over – the other bowlers went for an average of 10.78 – and varying his pace cannily.
Wood recovered from Warner hammering three fours from his opening over to emerge as the pick for England, also taking three.
“They’re a really good team,” Stoinis said of England. “The way they took it to us in the powerplay, with Jos and how Hales hit the ball, their world-class players are arguably some of the best in the world. They’re going to be as strong as anyone come World Cup time.”
