Monday, January 31, 2011

England seamer Liam Plunkett airlifted from Caribbean

And they are also the people most likely to find themselves stuck back at home - as Stuart Broad did last Christmas - while the rest of the team is living it up in the sun.

Broad spoke about his frustrating winter on Monday, for the first time since returning to Australia to complete his rehabilitation from a badly torn stomach muscle.

Being an uncomplaining type, he describes the experience with laconic humour rather than bitterness.

Even so, it must have been galling to commit so much industry to this tour, and then feature in only nine days of international cricket. Or six, if you discount the time Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott spent grinding out runs in the middle.

“It is the first time I’ve had to do a decent amount of rehab and it makes me realise you have to be as fit as possible because it is not much fun,” said Broad.

Asked whether he had been frustrated by his limited contribution to the series - which stood at two wickets and no runs - he replied: “I don’t really think of it as being those two Tests, I think of the 18 months that built the team that was able to win the Ashes, and I felt very much part of that.

“I only watched the first hour or so of the games I missed because I was starting rehab pretty early. But as an England supporter I was very proud of what the team achieved.”

Broad rejoined the tour a week ago in an attempt to improve his cricket fitness (he has been working exhaustively in Nottingham Forest’s gym at the City Ground for the past two months), but he was never expected to rejoin the battle against Australia.

In any case, all remaining tension has gone out of this one-day series after England’s batting collapsed in Brisbane on Sunday night, allowing the Australians to take a decisive 4-1 lead with two games to play.

Broad has spent the past couple of days bowling in the nets at around 60 per cent, and intends to crank it up further before the end of the week.

But his real goal is to prove his fitness by March 22, the date of England’s first World Cup match, against Holland.

“I’d like to think there is no problem there at all, but I won’t know until I’ve bowled off my full run,” he says.

If England have missed Broad’s all-round skills, then his prickliness and drive would have been equally valuable during the limp tail section of this tour.

These were qualities he showed in Adelaide in early December, when he attempted to play on through one of the deepest muscle tears the England medics have seen.

“I bowled the first ball of my second spell in the second innings and felt like something had gone,” Broad said. “By three balls in, it was really throbbing, like a really deep stitch. I knew they wanted to bounce Clarke so I was running in and every ball was just getting sorer and sorer.

“I went off and the scan showed there was no chance of continuing. And when all the bleeding started coming — there was blood all down my side –- it was definitely a no-go. I tried to come back out and field for a bit, because knowing the wicket was quite flat, I thought I might be able to bowl dobbers like Paul Collingwood. But the next morning I couldn’t even get my arm over.”

It is a hard school, fast bowling. As Broad, Plunkett, Shahzad et al will all no doubt attest.

England seamer Liam Plunkett airlifted from Caribbean England,seamer,Plunkett,airlifted,Caribbean http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/8293609/England-seamer-Liam-Plunkett-airlifted-from-Caribbean.html

England call up Liam Plunkett as bowling cover for rest of ODI series against Australia

England call up Liam Plunkett as bowling cover for rest of ODI series against Australia On the move: Liam Plunkett will leave England Lions in the Caribbean to join up with the squad in Australia Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Paceman Plunkett will leave the England Lions tour of the Caribbean to join the squad ahead of the seventh and final match in Perth on Sunday.

England's bowling stocks have been reduced to the bare bones in Australia with Ajmal Shahzad (hamstring) and Chris Tremlett (side strain) the latest players to be struck down by injury.

The duo will undergo scans tomorrow with fears they will join Tim Bresnan and Graeme Swann, who flew home early from the tour last week, on the sidelines.

Shahzad suffered a hamstring injury during yesterday's 51-run defeat in Brisbane, which saw England lose the series after falling behind 4-1, while Tremlett did not take his place due to a slight side strain.

With those concerns, England have opted to rush Plunkett, who last played for England during the tour of Bangladesh in March, from the other side of the world although, he will be unable to make it to Australia in time for Wednesday's sixth match in Sydney.

England team director Andy Flower said: "Liam Plunkett has been part of the England performance programme and England Lions squad this winter so we are confident that he will be ready to play a role for England should the need arise.

"We are waiting for an update on the injuries to Ajmal Shahzad and Chris Tremlett but with our preparations for the World Cup starting in less than a fortnight we need to prioritise getting our World Cup squad members fit and ready for the start of the tournament.

"We have two games left in this series and will be looking to end the tour with strong performances in Sydney and Perth."

England were given some good injury news today with long-term absentee Stuart Broad revealing he was ahead of schedule in his return from the stomach injury he suffered during the second Ashes Test in Adelaide.

The injury forced the 24-year-old to return home before Christmas but, after flying back to Australia to step up his recovery last week, the right-armer is hopeful he will be fit to return in England's first warm-up game against Canada in Dhaka on February 16.

"My recovery is going very well, I'm probably a little bit ahead of schedule," he said.

"I've probably bowled about 50-60% yesterday and I've pulled up fine this morning.

"Hopefully by the end of this Australian tour I will have come off near to a full run-up. My aim is to try and play the first warm-up game of the World Cup which is still two and a half to three weeks away.

"I'm hopeful for that."

Despite the number of injuries that have beset his fellow bowlers Broad is confident that England will have a clean bill of health when they play their World Cup opener against Holland on February 22 in Nagpur.

"The injuries are pretty minor so I don't think that is going to affect any balance to the World Cup squad or anything like that, but obviously it is a little bit frustrating in this series to have lost as many players as we have," he said.

"It's been hard to find the right balance that we will go into the World Cup with. You can't do anything about injuries in sport that's just the way it happens.

"We've had a lot of cricket on this tour, I think we've done well with the amount of injuries we've had."

England call up Liam Plunkett as bowling cover for rest of ODI series against Australia England,Plunkett,bowling,cover,series,against,Australia http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/8292451/England-call-up-Liam-Plunkett-as-bowling-cover-for-rest-of-ODI-series-against-Australia.html

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Australia v England - fourth one-day international: live

49.3 273/7 A single to Smith. 27 off three.

49.2 272/7 Smith edges a full one past Prior for four. 28 off four, which is, if anything, even more impossible.

49.1 268/7 Let's go ball by ball, just for a bit of fun. Lee misses the first and the batsmen run through for a bye. Would have been out if Prior had hit, but he didn't. 32 off five balls, which as we all know, is impossible.

OVER 49: AUS 267/7 Smith 41* Lee 34* Four to Smith as he plays his favourite shot, swivelling and pulling Anderson through square leg. And then - how many times has that happened today? - Lee skews it straight into the air, and it falls in between about four fielders. And so we come to the final over, which will be bowled by Chris Tremlett, with Australia still needing 33 to win.

Twitter Feel the withering rebuke of The Analyst on Twitter! "This ODI win will create more problems than it solves. Prior will carry on at 2 - wrong, Trott 3 - dubious, Bell and Morgan at 5&6 - dumb."

OVER 48: AUS 258/7 Smith 37* Lee 30* Tremlett returns; Lee hoiks, but straight up in the air! Who wants it? But it drops safe! Sweat is dripping off Lee's face as carves down to deep point for two more. Two more to Smith for a firm drive through the off-side - top work by Morgan on the rope, and Australia need 42 off two overs. Even though it won't have a bearing on the result, England have allowed Australia's lower order to rally again.

OVER 47: AUS 251/7 Smith 34* Lee 26* England just taking their eyes off the ball here. Short and down the leg side by Shahzad, and Smith helps it round the corner for three runs. Shahzad then bowls down the leg-side and Prior fails to gather. Three byes, plus one for the wide, and England have somehow contrived to concede seven runs off the ball of the over. That becomes nine off two, and then ten off three, but Shahzad applies the pressure with a series of excellent yorkers, and even though the fifty partnership comes up that over, Australia still need 49 off three overs. 44 from the five Powerplay overs, and Shahzad has finished with one for 58 off his set of 10.

OVER 46: AUS 239/7 Smith 33* Lee 19* Lee edges Anderson for four as the home crowd shuffle towards the exits. Some more singles, and then a really well-timed pull by Lee for four more, bisecting the two men on the leg-side boundary. Twelve off the over. Still not enough, but Australia showing their ticker. Australia need 61 off 4 overs.

OVER 45: AUS 227/7 Smith 32* Lee 9* Smith steps all the way across his stumps trying to paddle down to fine leg, Shahzad spots him and floats it in slower, but Smith still manages to get it away for two. Smith and Lee then think about a bye through to Prior, decide against, but Smith would still have been well out if Prior's underarm throw had been... well, not six feet wide of the stumps. Five off the over, and Australia need 73 off 5 overs.

OVER 44: AUS 222/7 Smith 28* Lee 8* Oh, Anderson. Take the damn wicket, will you? A bit more short stuff to Brett Lee; he misses at first, and then cuts it uppishly, high over point and bouncing just inside the rope. Four runs for that, and then one more from a toe-end into the leg-side. Anderson flicked the stumps with his fingers as his bowling arm came over, and as one of the most literal wicket-to-wicket bowlers in the game, I can tell you that that really will smart. Smith then jabs the bat down on a dastardly, in-swinging middle-stump yorker and gets three down to square leg, where Eoin Morgan saves the fourth with a well-timed slide. Good cricket, as men (it's always men) of a certain ilk like to observe: good ball, well played, and excellently fielded. I make that ten off the over. Australia need 78 off 6 overs.

OVER 43: AUS 212/7 Smith 24* Lee 3* Shahzad returns to administer what must be, at the very least, the antepenultimate rites. Smith flicks down to fine leg and hurries back for the second; Lee gets a short delivery and fends it just short of Bell at gully, and Australia need 88 to win off 7 overs.

OVER 42: AUS 207/7 Smith 20* Lee 2* This is where Twenty20 sails streets ahead of its 50-over counterpart. In Twenty20, the death is at least swift. Here, instead, we clatter on, possibly for another 40 minutes, with the result not remotely in doubt. Smith plays out a couple of dot balls before carving down to third man for two. Four off the over, and here comes the batting Powerplay, which is about as overdue as the end credits in Black Swan.

OVER 41: AUS 203/7 Smith 17* Lee 1* Still no sign of the batting Powerplay as Trott continues. Smith scampers through for a leg bye, but Lee struggles to lay bat on ball, only just managing to late cut the last for a single that keeps him on strike. Ninety-seven off nine overs is the equation, but there's really not much equitable about it.

Wicket OVER 40: WICKET! Hastings c Strauss b Anderson 1 (3) AUS 201/7
Short, fended straight into the air and out, out, out! Strauss with a simple catch at short mid-wicket! Nice tight over by Anderson, and he's rewarded with the wicket of Hastings, who looks none too comfortable with the short stuff. Brett Lee the new batsman as Australia need 99 off the last 10 overs. They're going out with a whimper here. Smith 17* Lee 0*

OVER 39: AUS 199/6 Smith 16* Hastings 0* John Hastings is the new batsman. Think of him as a kind of poor man's James Hopes. He won't face immediately, as Smith can't score off the last ball of the over. More than nine an over needed by Australia now, and James Anderson - remember him? - is going to return to mop up.

Wicket WICKET! White c Yardy b Trott 44 (64) AUS 199/6
White's long, ugly vigil comes to an end! Trott strikes again! Straight down long-on's throat as White tries to deposit Trott over the rope! That must surely seal it for England!

OVER 38: AUS 196/5 White 42* Smith 15* Four more for Smith as he cuts powerfully past point's right hand! Twenty minutes of Smith might make this interesting. But while he's undoubtedly adept at flaying the ball inelegantly to the boundary, he's not quite as good at rotating the strike. But that's just imbecilic from Prior, gathering the ball after Smith misses a pull, hitting the stumps with a pointless shy and granting an overthrow. Not a bad over for Australia, and still a batting Powerplay to come...

OVER 37: AUS 186/5 White 40* Smith 9* Trott continues. Reckon he might have found his niche here. Bit of a luxury having him as your sixth choice, no? Why not drop one of the seamers and have him as a fifth bowler in India? (Note to reader: I'm joking.) Smith pulls robustly through mid-wicket for four and then drives for two, but still only seven off the over.

OVER 36: AUS 179/5 White 40* Smith 2* Yardy's outta there after that expensive over, and in steams Tremlett instead. Smith's off the mark first ball with an off-side carve for one, but White can't get a run off any of the last three balls of the over. Good, tight stuff from Tremlett, and England are surely on the cusp of sealing the deal here.

OVER 35: AUS 176/5 White 39* Smith 0* White blocks the last ball of the over. 124 needed off 15 overs.

Wicket WICKET! Hussey c Bell b Trott 28 (34) AUS 176/5
Oh, Hussey's furious! On a length from Trott, who remarkably is still bowling, and Hussey simply lifts it straight to deep cover! Bell takes a couple of steps towards the ball and pouches it! An angry swish of the bat from Hussey as he walks away. Just as Australia were gathering some momentum, England make the breakthrough! Steve Smith the new man.

OVER 34: AUS 172/4 White 38* Hussey 25* Right, it's gear-cranking time! White lifts Yardy over cover for four, and then repeats the shot off the last ball. A filthy wide and a dribble of singles, and that's Australia's most productive over of the innings. Twelve off it!

OVER 33: AUS 160/4 White 29* Hussey 24* Is Trott going to continue? He is. Dot ball to Hussey, and then a couple down to fine leg as he edges onto his thigh pad. Oh, it hit Prior on the pad as well as it went through! That's got to go down as another drop, I'm afraid! Still, only the three from Trott's over, and Australia do need to give it some hammer now, you feel.

OVER 32: AUS 157/4 White 29* Hussey 21* Still, on the bright side, that human paean to excellence, Mike Yardy, is back in the attack. White tries to ramp the ball over his shoulder, and gets three for it. He then dances down the pitch, and gets a thick edge that thuds into Prior's right pad! It went so quickly that it seems mightily unfair to put it down as a drop, but it's there in bold, so there we are. Yardy then produces a very slow, very full toss off the last ball of the over. It reached a startled White at thigh height, and all he could do was pat it back. Nifty bowling by Yardy. More drinks, and Australia need 7.94 runs an over to wrap up the series.

OVER 31: AUS 150/4 White 26* Hussey 18* Master Strauss has seen enough from his yeoman Trott to grant him another over. Hussey inside edges again for two, a single here, a single there, and it's seven from the over. It's not very 'Sky Sports' of me to say so, but I'm afraid this is hardly the most riveting fare. Not that Jonathan Trott bowling to Cameron White using a bat made entirely of edges is in any way disappointing, but having been virtually present when England won the Ashes, and when Europe won the Ryder Cup, let's just say this is shaping up to be one of my quieter days.

OVER 30: AUS 143/4 White 23* Hussey 14* Hussey inside edges past his stumps! Two down to fine leg, a couple of other singles as Tremlett keeps it tight, and that run rate's pushing up to eight an over. At some stage, one or both of this pair are going to have to do a Richard Keys, and 'smash it'.

OVER 29: AUS 139/4 White 22* Hussey 11* Jonathan Trott's going to bowl. A little shudder went up my spine as I typed that. So, what did that Trott over produce? A) A series of Joel Garner rib-ticklers, pinning the batsman back in his crease before a lethally quick yorker sears through his defences? B) The full house: a ripping leg-spinner, a top-spinner, a flipper, a doosra, a carrom ball and finally a wicked googly that spins past the bat and tickles the top of leg stump? Or C) A series of medium-pace dobblies speared in at leg stump that White and Hussey can simply step back and loft over extra cover? When White tries the shot, substitute fielder Luke Wright saves a boundary with a sensational sliding stop on the rope. When Hussey does it, it drops just out of the reach of Pietersen, and he gets two.

OVER 28: AUS 132/4 White 18* Hussey 9* That's just stupefyingly awful cricket all round. Bit of a long hop by Tremlett, an ugly bottom-handed bunt through mid-wicket by Hussey, and a comical misfield on the boundary by Pietersen to give him four. As he slid to stop the ball and throw it inside the rope, the ball hit his own shoulder and rebounded back over the rope. Pietersen cares scantly enough to smile as the crowd barrack him.

OVER 27: AUS 126/4 White 17* Hussey 4* Goodness, has Cameron White just timed one? Down to fine leg for two runs? He has, you know. A few more singles, but nothing to alarm England in the slightest. Collingwood finishes his seventh over, and Chris Tremlett's going to return to the attack.

OVER 26: AUS 121/4 White 14* Hussey 2* White flukes another one over cover. Not sure exactly which edge of the bat that took, but it certainly wasn't anywhere near the middle. This is skilful stuff by Shahzad, a yorker outside off stump, and then a slower ball on the stumps, and White can score off neither. That run rate's creeping up on Australia like an unpaid gas bill. Hussey won't have much time to play himself in.

OVER 25: AUS 118/4 White 12* Hussey 1* It's tough to see Australia winning from this position, but you can easily see England losing it, if you take my meaning. Collingwood continues, and White really hasn't looked himself out there yet. He's barely middled one, which perversely is making him try to hit the ball harder and harder. Just a single each to White and Hussey, though, and Collingwood is currently sitting on the outstanding figures of one for 17 off six overs. Australia need 7.3 an over at the halfway stage, which would be entirely feasible with wickets in hand, but England, you feel, just need to keep their eye on the ball to reduce their series arrears to 3-1.

Wicket OVER 24: WICKET! Watson c Prior b Shahzad 64 (72) AUS 116/4
Could that be the breakthrough that wins the game for England? Shahzad strangles Watson outside off-stump! It might even have been a wide if Watson had left it. But having drilled the ball through mid-off for four the previous ball, he was in no mood to tarry, and an attempted wild swish finds a faint little tickle, and England can barely contain their delight! What a vital wicket! White 11* Hussey 0*

OVER 23: AUS 109/3 Watson 59* White 9* She kills herself. Natalie Portman kills herself. That's how it ends. It's a Swan Lake parallel, you see? She kills herself in order to attain a more perfect beauty. "I'm perfect," she breathes as she takes her final, glorious gulp of air. Preposterous. Five off Collingwood's over, including an ugly leg-side wide that he's fortunate doesn't disappear to the boundary. Prior with some tidy work there.

OVER 22: AUS 104/3 Watson 57* White 7* Shahzad is back, and is that an eensy weensy bit of reverse swing? Still, Watson drives out to deep cover for two runs, and then knocks the ball into the off-side for one more. Tight single that, might have been interesting if Bell had managed to make a mess of the stumps with his throw. The last ball definitely does reverse though! Big, expansive drive by White outside off stump, and he ends up missing it by a mile as the ball tails back into him. Seven an over now the required rate.

OVER 21: AUS 101/3 Watson 54* White 7* Collingwood's bowling an excellent spell here. Not only is he keeping the scoring down, the batsmen struggling to pierce that irritating inner ring, but he's looking a real wicket-taking threat too. The odd one comes back in, the odd one keeps low, and the upshot is just one off the over. When will the batsmen feel confident enough to attack Collingwood?

OVER 20: AUS 100/3 Watson 53* White 7* White lofts Yardy over mid-on - although not entirely convincingly - for two runs, before a low full toss scoots under Matt Prior and away for two byes. Twenty overs bowled, Australia need exactly 200, and England are on top at Adelaide.

OVER 19: AUS 94/3 Watson 52* White 4* Right, a couple more overs before I reveal the ending of Black Swan and deprive its makers of around £8.50 in box office revenue. Another lovely juicy over by Collingwood, exemplary line and length and just a little bit of nip, and two singles are all Australia can squeeze from it. Big LBW appeal off the last ball as Collingwood brings one back and takes Watson on bat and pad at roughly the same time, but there's enough doubt there for Watson to be given not out and for Strauss to decline the review.

OVER 18: AUS 92/3 Watson 51* White 3* Watson gets to a fine fifty - and overtakes Jonathan Trott as the highest runscorer in this long and pointless series - by cutting Yardy for one. White then tries to swipe over the leg-side, ends up skewing it over cover, and it only just lands safe with Shahzad bearing down on the ball! Five from the over, and Australia need exactly 6.5 runs per over.

Wicket OVER 17: WICKET! Clarke b Collingwood 15 (27) AUS 87/3
WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT? The Ginger Laker strikes! Watson looks none too comfortable with Collingwood's off-cutters, inside-edging through his legs for a fortuitous single. Clarke is nowhere near as fortunate, though, and as the ball nips back through his gate it flicks the top of middle stump! A nonplussed Clarke strides back into the pavilion! Advantage England again! White the new man. Watson 49* White 0*

OVER 16: AUS 86/2 Watson 48* Clarke 15* That's a much better over by Yardy, straightening up his line and making it harder for Watson and Clarke to milk easy singles into the leg side. There are even two or three stifled LBW appeals as Watson props forward. Eventually he turns it down to fine leg for a couple. Three from the over, and that's drinks.

OVER 15: AUS 83/2 Watson 45* Clarke 15* Strauss's flirtation with Collingwood (in cricketing terms, obviously, this isn't some wrong-side-of-the-tracks romance) ends after one over, and Shahzad comes back. And it's a good over, four singles from it. Still, Australia took 38 off those five Powerplay overs, and the game is well and truly alive as Yardy begins his second over.

OVER 14: AUS 79/2 Watson 43* Clarke 13* Michelle Yardy steps into the attack. After spending a couple of weeks treating his gentle rubber darts with the kind of caution you would normally regard radioactive waste, Australia look to have the measure of him now, which doesn't exactly bode well for six weeks of World Cup. And so it proves, Clarke and Watson helping themselves to five ones and a two. Seven off the over.

OVER 13: AUS 72/2 Watson 39* Clarke 9* Went to see that Black Swan last night. What a preposterously stupid film. Tripe masquerading as art. You see, it purports to be about ballet and beauty and perfection, but if you boil it down, it's really just a film about Natalie Portman's cha-cha. In fact, it was so bad I'm considering giving away the ending so nobody else can go and see it. Any objections? That's a decent start by Collingwood, but Watson times a late cut to perfection and ruins it by getting a boundary.

Twitter Michael Vaughan on Twitter: "England looking well set to win the ODI. Only a Watson hundred can save the Aussies."

OVER 12: AUS 66/2 Watson 34* Clarke 9* Whack! Watson swings Tremlett's slower ball over mid-wicket for six! Mid-on went back onto the fence, so Watson simply went wider of the man, and England need to beware here. A decent yorker from Tremlett gets Watson off strike, but Clarke gets his first boundary by flicking a shortish ball down to fine leg. Dangerous times for England, and so Strauss brings on the man for whom danger is his middle name: Paul Collingwood. It's not actually danger, it's David, but close enough.

OVER 11: AUS 55/2 Watson 27* Clarke 5* Watson gets his dancing shoes on! He swings Shahzad through the line, and it sails over mid-on for four. That wasn't a remotely bad ball by Shahzad, not too full, not too short, but Watson got enough height and distance on it to clear the man. The next one's a little streakier, over mid-off this time, but it still has enough to run away for four more. Good over for Australia, who now need 245 from 39 overs at 6.3 an over.

OVER 10: AUS 45/2 Watson 18* Clarke 4* Short from Tremlett, and Watson squeezes it through backward square leg for two, Pietersen on the boundary making the sliding stop. A short extra cover comes in for Clarke, which is a smart move in any form of cricket. Clarke steps across his stumps and turns in to mid-on for one, before Watson cuts with bat askew, down to third man for two. That's the end of Powerplay One, and it's been a good one for England.

OVER 9: AUS 39/2 Watson 13* Clarke 3* Clarke's off the mark, forcing off the back foot for three. Watson, meanwhile, is getting itchy feet, and tries to smash Anderson over mid-wicket and into the eighth dimension, but ends up scuffing it along the ground to deep mid-wicket.

OVER 8: AUS 34/2 Watson 11* Clarke 0* Watson gets a single into the off-side off the first ball of Tremlett's over. Clarke's happy to use the rest of the over as a sighter, though, leaving three of his five deliveries. One off the over, and at this stage of their innings, England were 53 for one. England have taken wickets with the new ball, which is what they needed to do, but still that missing fifth bowler will be giving Strauss a mild impending headache.

OVER 7: AUS 33/2 Watson 10* Clarke 0* Clarke defends his first ball. Wicket maiden for Anderson, and Australia need 267 off 43 overs at a rate of 6.2.

Wicket WICKET! Marsh c&b Anderson 1 (6) AUS 33/2
Anderson strikes! Again Marsh is a little early on the shot, a simple forward push to a simple good-length delivery by Anderson, bowling round the wicket. Did it stick in the pitch? Did Anderson hold it back a touch? Did Marsh just misjudge it? In any case, it popped up for a simple return catch, and as Michael Clarke strides to the wicket England have a marvellous opportunity to haul themselves back into the Longest One-Day Series In History.

OVER 6: AUS 33/1 Watson 10* Marsh 1* Marsh off the mark first ball. End of a fine over by Tremlett, who you sense must be desperate to go home nonetheless. He's not in the World Cup squad, and he's only playing because two of England's first-choice bowlers are currently enjoying the free Qantas peanuts

Wicket WICKET! Haddin c Strauss b Tremlett 20 (16) AUS 32/1
Gone! Tremlett works the slower ball! Haddin never looked comfortable that over, inside edging down to fine leg for four, and then fortunate not to play on. But Tremlett has him next time, cutting his fingers across the ball and tempting Haddin into driving far too soon. Strauss pockets the catch at short extra-cover! That's fine bowling from Tremlett, and the dangerous-looking Haddin departs!

OVER 5: AUS 28/0 Watson 10* Haddin 16* That's four! Haddin again swings high over mid-off. And four more! Cut through point. Haddin's tactic, clearly, is to give himself room and swing. The Tufnell approach, you might call it. After going for nine off his first three balls, though, Anderson pulls it back.

OVER 4: AUS 18/0 Watson 9* Haddin 8* Shahzad still bustling in off his short run and giving the batsmen the hurry-up, regularly penetrating the 90mph barrier. Haddin again tries to back away and swipe over the in-field, but Shahzad cleverly threads the gap between Haddin's swinging arc and the off-side wide mark (a rhyme curiously rejected by most of the great poets of history) and bowls another dot ball. Haddin connects that time, though, swinging over mid-off for four.

OVER 3: AUS 13/0 Watson 8* Haddin 4* Now! Is that a drop? Not quite! Watson flicks uppishly into the leg-side, and it falls just short of Eoin Morgan at deep mid-wicket and squirms under his lithe, diving frame for four runs. Watson then chops to backward point, and Haddin would have been completely and utterly out if Collingwood's throw had hit the stumps! A suicidal single, and Haddin had virtually given up on making his ground there. Two let-offs for Australia that over.

OVER 2: AUS 7/0 Watson 3* Haddin 4* Shahzad to bowl the second over, and it's a good one. Tight line and a good length off his short run, and all Watson can do is chop one down to third man. Haddin then gets a thick inside edge that runs away through square leg for three ill-gotten runs. The rest of the Australian batting line-up, by the way: Marsh, Clarke, White, Hussey, Smith, Hastings, Lee, Doherty, Bollinger.

OVER 1: AUS 3/0 Watson 2* Haddin 1* A slip and a short cover in for Watson, who gets off the mark with a controlled edge down to third man. Swing for Anderson, though, who squares up Haddin with some late curve. Watson tucks the ball off his thigh to mid-wicket for one more, before Haddin backs away to try and carve Anderson over the covers, Anderson follows him down the leg side, and Haddin almost chops on to his stumps.

07.34 The sun is still out, but the lights are on at Adelaide as Shane Watson and Brad Haddin stride to the wicket to try and knock off those 300 runs. Opening the bowling for England on his return from dribble-wiping duty at home, it's James Anderson.

Twitter Simon Briggs on Twitter: "Collingwood found a bit of form here (27 from 27) which means that if England return to five bowlers, it's probably Bell who misses out"

07.25 Hold your dingo dogs, though. England may have biffed their way to a halfway decent total, but it's come at a price - they've only picked three specialist bowlers, with Collingwood and Yardy as the hired help. The pair batted at seven and eight as England packed the batting order, but it does leave Andrew Strauss short of options in the field. Reckon we might see a bit of Kevin Pietersen as well, if Australia's tactics were anything to go by. Between them, Steve Smith, David Hussey and Xavier Doherty - yep, he's still around, too - took seven for 98 off 21 overs. The pace bowlers claimed one for 197 off 29.

07.20 Hello! The big news - leaving aside for the time being a pundit on a string - is that this flat pancake of a one-day series appears to be alive still. Australia need 300 to win at Adelaide after a vaguely assured batting display by England.

The good: a mature century by Jonathan Trott, a barnstorming innings of 67 from 58 balls by Matt Prior at the top of the order, finally justifying his selection ahead of Steve Davies, and some full-blooded hoiking at the death by Paul Collingwood and Michael Yardy. Collingwood only made 27, but along the way not only did he pass 5,000 ODI runs, but he middled one for the first time on this tour, smacking Brett Lee over mid-wicket for six.

The bad: In increasing order of ineptitude, a forgivable failure by Andrew Strauss, an execrable loft to long-on for 12 by Kevin Pietersen, and an unremarkable two-ball duck by Ian Bell, who edged Steve Smith - yep, he's still around - through to Brad Haddin.

The ugly: Eoin Morgan, who looked well set on 24 when he tried one of his snap-o'-the-wrists reverse-sweeps, but ended up skying it straight to point.

Still, 299 should be enough. Then again, we said that at Melbourne.

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Andrew Strauss backs England to turn series around after victory over Australia in fourth one-day international

Having lost the first three one-day internationals to an Australian side chastened by Ashes defeat, England secured a 21-run win in Adelaide built around Jonathan Trott's anchor innings of 102.

Trott's efforts pleased Strauss but it was the contributions for previously out-of-form players like Matt Prior (67), Paul Collingwood (27) and Michael Yardy (39no) that gave the skipper cause for optimism.

Asked if an improbable 4-3 series win could now be achievable, Strauss said: "I don't see why not.

"We absolutely desperately needed a victory and we were very determined to do so, but we needed a couple of good performances.

"Jonathan Trott's hundred was a very high quality innings and we probably could have got more than our 299, but that is generally a defendable total here and the bowlers did a good job.

"Matt Prior did brilliantly too. To come in after two ducks and play so positively showed his attributes. He played some good shots down the ground and scampered between the wickets to put the Australians under pressure.

"We needed Colly to get back into form and he came in in a good position where he could play some shots which will help him. Michael Yardy also played in the inventive way he can, which was good to see."

Trott was also pleased to have notched a second one-day hundred having been left short on 84 no in Sydney last time out.

"We spoke before the game about getting big partnerships and I'm glad to have done that," he said.

"(Boundary hitting) is something I've been working on very hard to improve and it's important to have those options.

"You're learning all the time with this game but keeping the basics and doing them well is always important."

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England keep series alive with 21-run victory in fourth one-day international against Australia at Adelaide Oval

A fortnight ago, Trott would have been on the outside of England’s plans for the World Cup - the batsman most likely to find himself carrying the drinks in Nagpur on Feb 22. Now the selectors must be wondering how they can possibly drop such an unstoppable run machine.

He found a backer in Michael Clarke, the Australian captain, who said “The earlier Jonathan gets in, the more it suits him and allows him to play his natural game. I thought he held the innings together well and allowed the others to bat around him.”

Clarke also admitted that he had asked the umpire, Marais Erasmus, whether Trott had been guilty of obstructing the field. This was a silly mix-up, in which Matt Prior called a run but Trott was more worried about whether the ball - which had deflected off his body - would knock into the stumps.

There was a farcical moment when Trott, Prior and Lee all found themselves falling over each other at the striker’s end, like students in a telephone box. Trott then looked up in a panic, shoulder-charged Lee, and sprinted up the pitch in such a way that he was protecting the non-striker’s stumps from a direct hit.

In the long run, Trott’s success will open a debate over whether England can afford to play a “steady Eddie” at No 3 in Asia, where aggression in the first 20 overs is normally the way to go.

But over the rest of this tour, the pressure will be on Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell to justify their places in England’s top six, especially now that Prior has found some form as an opener.

After two successive ducks, Prior struck a dynamic 67 to put England on the right road. But Pietersen and Bell both failed, falling in the same over to Steve Smith’s second-rate leg-spin.

England’s recent run of poor form - which still leaves them struggling with a 3-1 deficit - clearly stems from mental exhaustion. Pietersen, never a man for the small occasion, was particularly culpable when he holed out at long-on. The demanding team management of Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower won’t let him live on the glories of 2008 forever.

England’s innings might have stalled after their promising start - a recurring trope in this series - if they hadn’t dropped Luke Wright to fit in an extra batsman. As it was, they wrung a handy cameo out of Paul Collingwood, batting as low as No 7 for the first time in six years.

Collingwood began scratchily but swung Brett Lee for a giant six to kick-start his innings. His 27 from 27 balls might not sound like much, but it was his highest score in all cricket since the second Test, also on this ground.

Chasing 300, Australia came out of the blocks at a decent lick. This was the sort of slow, dry pitch where the faster you bowled, the faster you tended to disappear, and both Watson and Brad Haddin got a few early howitzers away off the seamers.

Taking the pace off the ball was the best solution, and the dribbly seamers of Collingwood and Trott were perfect for the middle of the innings.

Between them, the medium-pacers accounted for three wickets - not tailenders, but Australia’s Nos 4 to 6 - while conceding only four runs per over.

When Cameron White tried to pick one up into the crowd, but only holed out to long-on, England knew they had finally got themselves into a winning position.

Four late claims for World Cup chance

»Nasser Hussain
Nick Knight had been England’s preferred one-day opener for three years, but he hit a form trough just before the 1999 tournament started, and suddenly Hussain (pictured) was there. The new opener was the leading run-scorer – 194 at 64 – in a grim campaign when England failed to utilise home advantage.

»James Anderson
Anderson was only 20 when he made his debut in 2002 the one-day series during a disastrous Ashes tour, producing record-breaking figures of 10-6-12-1 in his seventh match. Subsequently led England’s wicket-takers in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa with 10 at 22.50.

»Paul Nixon
Preferring to be known as “the Badger”, the 36-year-old Nixon replaced Chris Read for the one-day series in Australia, although many other wicketkeepers had been tried. A tally of 193 runs at 38.60 in the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean was a more-than-decent effort.

»Jonathan Trott
England started the Commonwealth Bank series with the idea that Trott might be the spare World Cup batsman, but his properties as a run-machine, highlighted by Wedesday’s vital century, have moved him ahead of other contenders such as Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood.

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Cricket World Cup 2011: bowling attack holds the key to winning the World Cup, says Kevin Pietersen

Cricket World Cup 2011: bowling attack holds the key to winning the World Cup, says Kevin Pietersen Hard at work: Kevin Pietersen says England's skills have improved dramatically over the past year Photo: GETTY IMAGES

With the Ashes urn sitting alongside the World Twenty20 prize, Pietersen’s next wish is to reach the pinnacle of the 50-over format in Mumbai in April.

While England’s form has been patchy in the one-day series against Australia, Pietersen expects that to change when the first-choice bowling line-up of James Anderson, Stuart Broad (stomach injury), Tim Bresnan (calf) and Graeme Swann (knee and back) reunites for the World Cup. The squad’s rise over the year has convinced Pietersen that England are capable of winning the event for the first time.

“The batsmen have improved, the fielding is top notch, our catching is incredible and our bowling is so skilful,” Pietersen said in Brisbane. “We’ve shown Australia up in a huge way, with the difference in our bowling attack to their bowling attack this summer, with reverse swing and the skill at which we’ve gone about our business. Our skill levels are really, really good.”

England have reached the finals of three World Cups but the closest they came to winning was in 1987, when Australia beat them by seven runs at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens. However, this outfit is conditioned to breaking down barriers, having collected the Twenty20 trophy in the West Indies last year and then raised the urn in Australia for the first time in 24 years.

“The team has been amazing through the last 12 months, winning in the Caribbean, winning the Ashes, winning on Australia Day [in Adelaide] the other day was magnificent for us,” Pietersen said. “To cap off the 12 months with a 50-over World Cup would be pretty surreal. The boys are absolutely buzzing for it.”

The series in Australia is England’s last official on-field engagement before their hectic schedule turns them home for three days. They then head to Bangladesh for a couple of warm-up matches and the opening exchanges of the World Cup.

Players who have been with the squad since November have started to feel flat and a mixture of fatigue and a post-Ashes hangover contributed to the slow start to the limited-overs campaign. Life in the subcontinent will be even more hectic as the sides that reach the final in Mumbai face more than six weeks of navigating through Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India.

“Our schedule is ridiculous going into this World Cup,” Pietersen said. “It has been for England teams for a very long time. And that’s probably why England have not done well in World Cups.” The proximity of the Ashes tour and the World Cup, which both traditionally run in a four-year cycle, was a major reason for the unusual scheduling of back-to-back Australia-England Test series in 2013-14.

England’s exact World Cup itinerary is currently unclear after the stadium at Eden Gardens, which was due to host the match against India on February 27, was ruled unsuitable to host such an important encounter. “That was the huge game for us, for everybody,” Pietersen said. “So, yes, it’s disappointing, but it might work to our advantage playing at a ground where there’s not 120,000 [spectators] but 50,000.”

Whatever happens to England during the World Cup, Pietersen will be returning to India after the tournament. He was signed for US$650,000 by the Deccan Chargers IPL side this month, a fee which was less than half his US$1.55million price from Bangalore in 2009. The new value ranks him below his team-mates Dale Steyn, Cameron White, Daniel Christian and Kumar Sangakkara.

“It’s not a mere $650,000,” Pietersen said. “I’ve always said whatever you get in the IPL is an absolute bonus. We’re fortunate enough to have five weeks, and who earns that kind of money in five weeks? Nobody, unless you’re Rooney or Lampard or Ronaldo or John Terry. You look at it and just say, ‘We’re very fortunate’.” Despite his complaints about England’s draining schedule, Pietersen had no second thoughts about rejoining the IPL, preferring to cash-in rather than rest or play county cricket ahead of the international home summer.

“You’d be a fool not to put your name into the hat,” he said.

“All the England lads put their name in the hat for this IPL because you never know what’s round the corner. You want to potentially earn as much as you can earn, as well as making as many friends as you can along the way.”

Pietersen also faces a different Indian experience after admitting he didn’t know where the Deccan franchise was based. He will be spending most of his time in the information technology hub of Hyderabad, which could be valuable after his latest online misadventure.

He was furious that the winning bid of his Twitter auction to support Queensland’s flood victims was a fake. Initially Pietersen was hugely satisfied to learn his prize of a trip to Perth for the final one-day international against Australia next Sunday (Feb 6) had sold for £31,800.

When the winner was contacted he claimed his account had been broken into, leaving Pietersen hacked off. “It is so frustrating and disappointing that somebody can do that,” he said. “It’s as low as it gets, like looting a store after it’s been flooded.” Pietersen was left hoping one of the other bidders would make another offer in time to fly to the game. “I could only do what I’ve done,” he said. “I haven’t done absolutely anything to warrant this kind of thing.” The fourth one-day international in Brisbane turned into a fund-raiser for those affected by the devastating floods a fortnight ago, which killed 22 people and caused £2.5 billion of damage. Pietersen said the quick clean-up of the city — “it doesn’t look like anything has happened” — was “absolutely incredible”.

Australia’s players visited schools around Brisbane on Friday that were affected by the disaster and Michael Clarke, Australia’s captain, said the scene put his glamorous life in perspective. “We’ve seen so many houses where the actual structure was still there but the whole inside was destroyed, empty,” he said. “It was a little bit like a ghost town.”

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James Anderson: seeing results of the Queensland floods has put our minor problems into perspective

James Anderson: seeing results of the Queensland floods has put our minor problems into perspective Impact: Jimmy Anderson is hoping to gain some momentum by winning the remaining games in the one-day series against Australia Photo: GETTY IMAGES

The TV footage was distressing to see, and all the more so because we were in the same country and felt a connection to this city. We played a Test in Brisbane in November, and spent a week eating in the restaurants and wandering around the city.

Now we are back here, for Sunday’s one-day international, and it is heart-wrenching to see the evidence of what happened. It’s most obvious down by the riverbanks: the Gabba is quite near the river, and when we are driving across we can see the watermarks on the bridges, and the trees that have been killed.

The centre was not as badly affected as some other areas, but there is still quite a bit of cleaning up to do. Now that the weather here has taken a turn for the better, people have begun work on what will be a long process of restoration.

When the guys are starting to whinge about feeling tired, it sometimes takes a reality check to kick you back into gear, and remind you how lucky you are to be playing cricket for your country. Now we’ve only got three games left before we go home, which is not really a hardship for us.

It’s true that, when I came back from my short break at home, I could see hints of tiredness in the squad. For guys who have played pretty much every game, people like Andrew Strauss and Jonathan Trott, the tour has been hard on them physically and mentally. Hopefully I brought some energy into the team in the last game, not just with my bowling but in the field as well.

I’ve forgotten all about the Ashes now, it just feels like such a long time ago. I’m not denying that retaining the urn was a great thing for us, but while some people might see this one-day series as meaningless, that’s not our view at all.

Not only do we want to gain some momentum going into the World Cup, but we want to keep climbing in the one-day rankings as well. Our goal is to be No 1 in all forms of the game, so there’s still a lot riding on the series.

Of course, three nights at home between this tour and setting off for Bangladesh is not ideal. But we knew at the start of this trip that it would be a long one. Now, most of the guys are looking forward to arriving in the sub-continent, because it’s very exciting to be going to a World Cup.

Having said that, I welcome the fact that the next Ashes series won’t be scheduled alongside the World Cup, because a tour of Australia is such a big series that it does take a lot out of you. You want to be as fresh as you possibly can for such a big tournament.

Look at the last World Cup. We left Australia on a high note, after winning the one-day series, but the whole tour had been a long and draining experience for us and people wanted to get home.

The tournament in the West Indies proved to be disappointing. Duncan Fletcher resigned as coach and we had a few disciplinary things going on, so there were some distractions.

This time, we’re much better prepared. The balance of the side is looking really good, when you think that we’ve got Graeme Swann, Tim Bresnan and Stuart Broad still to come back. Trott has brought his ability to tick over in the middle part of the innings, and we have options with our part-time bowlers.

If we can get some overs out of Trott and Paul Collingwood it does give us more options: we can look at the conditions for each match and decide whether we bring in another batter or specialist bowler.

This World Cup will be played in three countries and there won’t be a single formula for success. Teams are going to have to adapt, and it could well be the most versatile squad that comes out on top.

James Anderson: seeing results of the Queensland floods has put our minor problems into perspective James,Anderson,seeing,results,Queensland,floods,minor,problems,perspective http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/8290350/James-Anderson-seeing-results-of-the-Queensland-floods-has-put-our-minor-problems-into-perspective.html

Cricket World Cup 2011: Asia pace will test Jonathan Trott's staying power

Cricket World Cup 2011: Asia pace will test Jonathan Trott's staying power: Jonathan Trott Setting the pace: Jonathan Trott may struggle against spinners and medium-pacers on the subcontinental pitches Photo: AFP

You can face the same sort of delivery that Harold Larwood would have bowled without exhuming him. But one thing that cannot be done is to make Jonathan Trott face his own bowling on a slow pitch in Asia.

And that is what England would like to do before the World Cup: to see how Trott would bat without any pace on the ball, when delivered by a spinner or a medium-pacer like himself.

He can bat through an innings, like nobody else in this fatigued England side; he can bat until the cows come home. But could he force the pace at the knock-out stage of the World Cup?

England would never dream of going into a one-day tournament with a settled XI, but whereas in previous World Cups this has been because some of England’s one-day batsmen have been so unproductive they have had to be dropped, this time it is because Trott has made an irresistible case.

He has stopped England being dismissed in less than 50 overs by Australia, and therefore he cannot be dropped, even though those suspicions remain.

It would be so convenient if Trott can grow into the No3 position, rapidly, as a batting all-rounder.

For although he hasn’t bowled on this interminable tour until now, Trott has plenty of experience of one-day bowling and was cheerfully doing the job at the death for Warwickshire when he forced his way into the England Test side and had more urgent matters.

If he and Paul Collingwood can be relied on for 10 overs between them, every time, England will bat deep and only have to pick four bowlers out of James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann and Mike Yardy.

When there is pace on the ball, Trott is fine, working all the angles on the leg side. But when he has to put pace on the ball, the options are limited.

He doesn’t do sixes: six-hour vigils, yes, but not sixes over the rope. He has yet to hit his first in Test or one-day internationals, although the slog-sweep that he unleashed during his Adelaide century could be the portent of one.

But it was when David Hussey came on with his part-time offbreaks that we had an earnest of what might await in the World Cup: not in the qualifiers against Netherlands and their like, or even against India wherever that qualifier might be staged now that Kolkata’s Eden Gardens has been stripped of its plum fixture — and (don’t forget the politics) the president of the local association taken down a few pegs.

But in a semi-final against a team packed with spinners on a turning pitch, all of England’s top three of Andrew Strauss, Matt Prior and Trott are going to labour without pace on the ball.

Even though he had posted his hundred, Trott at Adelaide failed to get a single one of Hussey’s four offbreaks off the square and chopped on the last of them.

As with all batsmen, there is one thing that cannot be coached once he has passed his teens: the ability to run down the pitch at spinners with certainty. This has to be programmed in from an early age, and is with Asian batsmen, as a rule, but not those from England and the southern hemisphere.

If England’s top order are bogged down by spin in the World Cup, the truth is that only Kevin Pietersen can bale them out. And the trouble there is that Trott and Pietersen have no history of partnerships together; two men from similar backgrounds have been like poles repulsing so far.

Their only major partnership to date ended with the poles at the same end and Pietersen run out in the Centurion Test, which England only just saved thereafter.

Trott is so absorbed in batting through an innings that ‘calling’ sometimes seems to be a distraction. But at least this is an excess of what has nowadays become a rare virtue.

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Australia v England, fourth one-day international in pictures

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England v Australia, fifth one-day international in pictures

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Steve James: England Ashes hero Simon Jones swings back to his best form

There was more, though, because his last wicket then ensured a tied game. So it was time for a “super over” decider. Naturally, Jones was Hampshire’s nominated flinger. He took two wickets in three balls. You can claim no more than two dismissals in a super over and Hampshire required only one to win.

The stunning thing was that Jones looked impossibly fit. He has clearly shed pounds. He looked as slim and lissom as he did in 2005 when he helped to slay the Australians.

To think that the last time Jones graced an international arena was the penultimate Test of that Ashes series at Trent Bridge is to confront a tale of sporting tragedy. Injury robbed us of a reverse-swinger as devastating in that series as Waqar Younis had ever been.

At 32 and with a list of injuries that could yet prompt a special issue of The Lancet, Jones will not play another Test. But he did play one County Championship match at the end of last season, recording figures of 22-5-60-4 against Warwickshire, including the wicket of Ian Bell. And I thought he should have played against South Africa at Headingley in 2008 when in fine form for Worcestershire.

Instead England chose an Australian roof-tiler called Darren Pattinson. Enough said.

But could Jones still play one-day and T20 cricket for England? The thought suddenly occurred while watching him perform on Eurosport. (There was plenty of room for contemplation as the trite commentary simply had to be turned down.) He was that good and that exciting.

It would hardly be a novel arrangement for a fast bowler. Take the Australians Brett Lee and Shaun Tait. You only see them appearing for four or 10-over spells these days.

It seems that the real quicks can manage only such spells. The Ashes series involved mainly fast-mediums. Then, suddenly, in the first T20 Lee, Tait and Mitchell Johnson were steaming in together.

In truth, that is a situation most fast bowlers have mischievously craved for time immemorial: lots of money for very little work.

That is because bowlers don’t actually like bowling. Certainly not the prospect of bowling. (Not that batsmen always like the prospect of batting either, mind; thus the existence of nightwatchmen).

No happier group of people will you find than a set of bowlers just informed that their captain has won the toss and elected to bat: feet up and time for a cup of tea.

Some in the Glamorgan dressing room could not disguise their glee. I would sometimes point out that, while they were celebrating, I was contemplating facing someone like Courtney Walsh. And that they might have to face him later, too. That soon shut them up.

But could England employ Jones on a similar short-game basis to Lee and Tait? Like the Australian pair, that would suit his body right now. He is not quite as quick as them, but he is quick enough. He can touch 90mph when roused. And he is definitely more skilful and accurate than Tait.

Among fast bowlers, England currently have impressive strength in depth, but they also have a fixture list so arduous that it might worry Sir Ranulph Fiennes. Last Sunday they were missing an entire first-choice attack.

If Jones can string some games together in the summer, he might well merit consideration. And why not?

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England spinner Graeme Swann ruled out for rest of ODI series in Australia and will fly home due to back injury

“There is no point keeping him here any longer,” Andy Flower said. “It is unlikely he will be able to play any part in this series at all.”

Could Flower perhaps have been more proactive on this? Swann has already been hors de combat for more than a week, and a little time off has always seemed like a commonsense solution, especially when you consider the irrelevance of this tacked-on one-day series.

Alec Stewart, the former England wicketkeeper, has actively welcomed news of Swann’s latest twinge. “As long as [Tim] Bresnan and Swann come through their injuries, in a silly way England will have benefited before going off to the World Cup,” Stewart told the Cricinfo website.

But Flower has other reasons to be worried. For one thing, he has said before that Swann’s form dips when he spends any length of time out of the game. For another, Bresnan’s torn calf may involve as much as a four-to-six-week lay-off, which would put him right up against the start of the tournament on Feb 19.

Even though the World Cup doesn’t get going for real until the quarter-finals, which start on March 23, bowlers need time to rediscover rhythm and full bowling fitness after a tricky injury like this one.

Take Stuart Broad: even though he has been turning his arm over gently for a week or two, on his return from a torn stomach muscle, he won’t be risked in a match until the players arrive in Asia.

England feel obliged to put a brave face on this Australian one-day series, for fear of being portrayed as whingers. After all, many of these players have volunteered, of their own free will, to play in the Indian Premier League rather than rest in April.

But the way injuries have been stacking up - at a rate of one or two per game if you count the Australians - it’s clear that the crazy scheduling is hurting England’s chances of lifting the World Cup for the first time.

Flower was asked if he would be pleasantly surprised to go into the first matches of the tournament with a fully fit squad. The short answer was yes.

“Given we have only three nights at home between the two tours, it is possible we might not have 15 fit guys,” he said. “The timeline will be tight for Swann and Bresnan.”

The decision to take Luke Wright to the World Cup as a spare batting allrounder has left England a little short of bowling back-up.

Assuming that most of the pitches encourage a two-spinner attack, they only have James Tredwell and Ajmal Shahzad in reserve.

Flower has said before that the games are quite a way apart, giving him a chance to call up an injury replacement if anyone should suffer a serious problem. We can assume that Chris Tremlett will be on standby at The Oval, while another group of alternative options will be involved in the England Lions tour of the West Indies.

Flower described this as “a slight complication, because they will be quite a long way away”.

If the worst comes to the worst, England will have to hope for a re-enactment of Alastair Cook’s call-up five years ago, when he was rushed from Antigua to Nagpur, and scored a century on Test debut.

England spinner Graeme Swann ruled out for rest of ODI series in Australia and will fly home due to back injury England,spinner,Graeme,Swann,ruled,series,Australia,injury http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/8280236/England-spinner-Graeme-Swann-ruled-out-for-rest-of-ODI-series-in-Australia-and-will-fly-home-due-to-back-injury.html

Andrew Strauss admits batting has to improve for World Cup after defeat to Australia in one-day series

Andrew Strauss admits batting has to improve for World Cup after defeat to Australia in one-day series Work to be done: Andrew Strauss is aware that England have to imporve their batting ahead of the World Cup after another defeat to Australia Photo: EPA

The tourists won the Ashes in emphatic style but have failed to reproduce that form in the shorter format, slipping to a decisive 4-1 deficit in the seven-match series after a 51-run loss in Brisbane today.

A string of poor totals with the bat has been at the heart of Strauss' side's failings, and he said: ''We're very disappointed with how we've played as a batting group. There's been a lot of talking but talking doesn't bring results - guys have to bring it to the middle.

''We want the guys to play positively, We've got the World Cup coming up and I'd hate to see guys go into their shells but it's decision-making - when is the right time to attack and the right time to defend - and we haven't done that well enough. The reasons for that, I'm not sure.

''We've played very badly, we could have won the first two games and probably should. We haven't played smart cricket.

''We've got two games to get momentum for the World Cup.''

Young all-rounder Chris Woakes provided a rare bright spot on the day with six for 45, the best ODI figures by an England bowler on foreign soil, and Strauss continued: ''He obviously showed talent and it shows the future's bright for us.''

Woakes himself added: ''I was pleased with my performance with the ball, it was one of those days when it seemed to go my way, but it would have been sweeter if I was on the winning side.

''I'm pleased with my own performance but it's just a shame we're out of the series.''

Australia skipper Michael Clarke, whose 54 out of Australia's 249 all out was the top score of the match, said: ''I'm excited to contribute, it's been a while since I made 50.

''To win the series is fantastic, the boys are stoked.

''I thought when I got out that if we could scratch out 230 or 240 we were in with a chance, I thought 249 was a pretty good score.

''Everybody contributed, a few guys got starts with the bat and guys chipped in with two wickets.''

The match also saw another significant amount of money raised for the flood relief effort in the surrounding Queensland area and Clarke concluded: ''That's the most important thing really, the turnout today was fantastic.

''The game of cricket has raised so much money. England have been fantastic too, they've donated a few things.''

Andrew Strauss admits batting has to improve for World Cup after defeat to Australia in one-day series Andrew,Strauss,admits,batting,improve,World,after,defeat,Australia,oneday,series http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/8291234/Andrew-Strauss-admits-batting-has-to-improve-for-World-Cup-after-defeat-to-Australia-in-one-day-series.html

Chris Tremlett rewarded with incremental England contract for Ashes heroics

The 29 year-old was seen as something of a surprise selection when team director Andy Flower named his Test party to tour Australia, but he took his chance brilliantly following Stuart Broad's injury, taking 17 wickets in the series as he played the last three Tests of England's 3-1 triumph.

Incremental contracts are awarded on a points basis, with players needing to reach 20 points to be awarded one.

Chris Tremlett rewarded with incremental England contract for Ashes heroics Chris,Tremlett,rewarded,incremental,England,contract,Ashes,heroics http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/8281405/Chris-Tremlett-rewarded-with-incremental-England-contract-for-Ashes-heroics.html

Sean Ervine stays at Hampshire after Zimbabwe World Cup about-turn

Cricket World Cup-Sean Ervine stays at Hampshire after Zimbabwe World Cup U-turn No change: Zimbabwean all-rounder Sean Ervine is staying at Hampshire after rejecting the chance to play at the Word Cup Photo: GETTY IMAGES

The all-rounder was named in his country’s preliminary 30-man squad and, having agreed to return to the international fold following his retirement in 2004, was then selected in the final party of 15.

That would have rendered the 28 year-old an overseas player for county cricket purposes and spelled the end of his career at the Rose Bowl, where he has been a key figure in recent years – including during last season’s victorious Friends Provident t20 campaign.

Now, having had time to consider the impact on his personal and professional life, Ervine has opted to withdraw from the Zimbabwe squad in favour of returning to Hampshire.

The decision means he will almost certainly not add to his international record of five Tests and 42 one-day internationals.

Ervine said: “After having had time to reflect on all of the circumstances, I have realised that this is not the right time to leave Hampshire.

“I have a great relationship with this club and its supporters and I feel like part of a family. Hampshire is my home, so much so that I am planning to get married there next year. I do not, therefore, want to be away for long periods of time.”

Sean Ervine stays at Hampshire after Zimbabwe World Cup about-turn Ervine,stays,Hampshire,after,Zimbabwe,World,aboutturn http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/cricket-world-cup/8284707/Sean-Ervine-stays-at-Hampshire-after-Zimbabwe-World-Cup-about-turn.html

England in Australia: Paul Collingwood down but not out as he eyes World Cup salvation

He has not entered so low in the one-day side since 2005 and the past month of demotions indicates the 34 year-old’s strength is weakening.

While he remains the Twenty20 captain, he left before being pushed from the Test side after managing only 83 runs in the Ashes, and is now battling for time in the format he has been most suited to.

In England’s current state, whenever they require another specialist bowler - they relied on three front-line seamers in Adelaide - Collingwood will be the most vulnerable batsman.

“Is the writing on the wall? Is that what you’re trying to say?” he said. “We will have to see what conditions are like. I’m desperate to get in the side, like every other batsman. It will be interesting to see what combination they go with.”

The long-awaited Ashes success in Australia has made this slump easier to deal with for Collingwood, who failed to make a significant impact on the Test series.

“Of course you get down, this is your job,” he said after the side landed here for Sunday’s fifth one-day international.

“You feel you are letting your team-mates down. It doesn’t only affect you, it affects your family, because there is a lot of pressure on what we do, but the older you get the more you try to keep things in perspective.”

By his count, he has had four “horrible bad runs of form” at international level and this trough is mild compared with his state of mind during the tour here in 2006-07.

Being bowled by a straight ball from Xavier Doherty in Sydney on Sunday was nowhere near as deflating as his dismissal to Andrew Symonds in Adelaide four years ago.

“I plinked it to mid-off trying to hit it over the top and I remember literally sitting in the locker - in it - just nearly in tears,” he said. He had scratched three off 17 balls in that one-day international before England were dismissed for 110, adding to their despair after suffering an Ashes whitewash.

“There have been plenty of low points along the way,” he said. “It was ridiculous [in 2006-07]. I went from that point thinking, ‘I can’t even bat any more’, to getting man-of-the-match awards. It can change quickly.”

Four years later he is hoping the encouraging display in Adelaide - “It was good to get past 20, I haven’t done that in a while” – will be the start of another run of success. England would welcome the improvement from one of their previously major influences as they attempt to claw back a 3-1 deficit.

“It’s so frustrating not being in good form,” he said. “But I honestly think it is just around the corner, so hopefully [Wednesday] was the spark that I needed.”

His bowling is often valuable and he showed his effectiveness on the sluggish Adelaide pitch that should be similar to the surfaces on offer during the World Cup. He is also versatile enough to deliver seam up or cutters, the more likely method for success in the subcontinent.

On Wednesday he bowled Michael Clarke with one angling in, finishing with one for 22 off seven overs before leaving the ground with stomach cramps. He could be a threat at the Gabba as the fifth bowler in humid conditions, especially in the evening when the ball swings sharply.

“It’s important [to have a second string], I want to contribute, want to win games for England,” he said. “It’s a great way to take the pressure off in many ways from your batting. But ultimately my role in the side is to score runs and that’s what I want to get back to.”

England in Australia: Paul Collingwood down but not out as he eyes World Cup salvation England,Australia,Collingwood,World,salvation http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/8286893/England-in-Australia-Paul-Collingwood-down-but-not-out-as-he-eyes-World-Cup-salvation.html

Pakistan spot fixing trial: tight restrictions put the squeeze on tribunal verdict

Pakistan spot fixing trial: tight restrictions put the squeeze on tribunal verdict - Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif and Salman Butt Under suspicion: Pakistan cricketers Mohammad Amir (L) Mohammad Asif (Back C) and Salman Butt (R) Photo: AFP

Look at official inquiries in Britain. Start by appointing Sir John Somebody — and there is your guarantee that nobody will dig too deep. He will be, in cricket imagery, ‘a safe pair of hands’. He can be relied on to lift the lid a little, find a transgressor or two, then lower the lid again so that life can go on much as before.

In the same way, the three judges of the ICC tribunal have been given narrow parameters that don’t risk upsetting the applecart. They are focusing on last August’s events surrounding the fourth Test between England and Pakistan at Lord’s. Many strange, even inexplicable, occurrences have taken place in professional cricket over the last two decades, but these will not be taken into account.

Why? Specifically, the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit has always concentrated on prevention: on lecturing the young cricketers of tomorrow about the evils of this world. The unit hasn’t been given the resources to catch cricketers at the bidding of bookmakers or, therefore, the official encouragement to do so. Much more convenient all round to keep the lid on: then the stakeholders, the major sponsors, are not scared away.

What the three-man tribunal has been left to judge is the evidence of apparent wrongdoing during that Lord’s Test, when a News of the World reporter was videotaped in the act of giving £150,000 in cash to some Pakistan players’ agent, Mazhar Majeed. In return, Majeed said he would arrange for Pakistan’s two opening bowlers, Mohammed Amir and Mohammed Asif, to bowl no-balls at specific moments in the Lord’s Test.

In the event, Amir bowled two no-balls early in the Lord’s Test, and in both cases he overstepped by a margin that astonished some observers, including the umpire Tony Hill of New Zealand. The fact that he overstepped twice in such a short passage of play was notable in itself: in the three previous Tests, Amir had bowled a total of three no-balls.

As part of Amir’s defence, a conversation has emerged between his captain Salman Butt and Pakistan’s coach Waqar Younis — shortly after Amir had overstepped a long way when bowling a bouncer at Jonathan Trott. Butt said this was a tactic to stop Trott lunging forward to negate the swing that Amir was obtaining. If nothing else, this was against the spirit of the game, as a deliberate attempt to injure the batsman by illegal means.

Butt has also tried to account publicly for the fact that £29,000 was found in his room after the Metropolitan Police had raided the Pakistan team hotel on the third evening of the Lord’s Test. He has explained it away as cash allowances — to which all international players are entitled, with more for the captain — and appearance fees.

The verdicts will be delivered in Doha, Qatar: not the sort of place cricket had in mind when it first thought of neutral venues. The three-man tribunal consists of Michael Beloff, QC, the chairman of ICC’s Code of Conduct commission; Judge Albie Sachs of South Africa and Kenya’s former Attorney General Sharad Rao.

It may be hard to recall the ill-feeling which grew up between the England and Pakistan sides during the one-day series that followed the Lord’s Test, but real bad blood there was — and the start of a brawl between Trott and the Pakistan bowler Wahab Riaz.

England’s players came close to unilaterally refusing to finish the series after the Pakistan board chairman, Ijaz Butt, laid himself open to ridicule by claiming that England’s players had taken bookmakers’ money in the Oval international. Even though this case is due to be put to bed before the World Cup, it is just as well the two countries have been drawn in different groups.

Pakistan spot fixing trial: tight restrictions put the squeeze on tribunal verdict Pakistan,fixing,trial,tight,restrictions,squeeze,tribunal,verdict http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/pakistan/8290332/Pakistan-spot-fixing-trial-tight-restrictions-put-the-squeeze-on-tribunal-verdict.html

James Anderson returns to inspire England as Australia dominate one-day international series

Anderson was allowed to return home immediately after the Ashes victory to rest after being the only seamer to play in all five Tests.

However, in his absence England have won just once against Australia, a last-ball victory in the Twenty20 in Adelaide, before losing their last four matches.

That run saw the Twenty20 series levelled before falling 3-0 behind in the current seven-game one-day international series.

Anderson is set to return in Wednesday's match in Adelaide and is looking to make an immediate impact in a game England cannot afford to lose.

"It was great to go home and see my family. It was also nice to get a break and rest the body and the mind," he said.

"I needed it, my body certainly needed it after the Test series. I'm excited about playing again and looking forward to Wednesday.

"Hopefully I can bring a bit of experience and a bit of energy in the field. I'd like to think I bring some energy with both my bowling and fielding.

"I don't think we are that far away having seen the first three games. We aren't far away from a win and turning the momentum around."

Despite his team-mates' poor results in the one-day series so far, Anderson, who rejoined the squad in Sydney on Saturday, believes morale is just as high as it was during their historic Ashes success.

"I know we are 3-0 down but the dressing room seems just as positive as when I left," he added.

"They are still in good spirits. We know we are just one game away from turning the momentum around. We are looking to Wednesday to be a good all-round performance with both bat and ball."

The Adelaide Oval was the first winning stop on England's route to the Ashes, when they won by an innings and 71 runs.

Anderson took six wickets in the match and, with the game being staged on Australia Day, is hoping to keep his memories of the picturesque ground untarnished.

"I have nice memories from the Test here, but Wednesday is a completely different situation," he said. We're 3-0 down and we have a must-win one-day game.

"We're hoping for more good memories here."

James Anderson returns to inspire England as Australia dominate one-day international series James,Anderson,returns,inspire,England,Australia,dominate,oneday,international,series http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/8277833/James-Anderson-returns-to-inspire-England-as-Australia-dominate-one-day-international-series.html

Michael Clarke content to 'cop stick' as long as Australia keep beating England

Michael Clarke-Michael Clarke content to 'cop stick' as long as Australia keep beating England Bitter-sweet: Australia's one-day captain Michael Clarke has had a lean winter with the bat, but is delighted his side have made a flying start in the seven-match 50-over series Photo: REUTERS

The 29 year-old has come under fire after a lean Australian summer with the bat, with totals of 36, 10 and nine in the opening three matches of the seven-match series with England.

And although he is uncomfortable under the spotlight, he admits his performances could be better. “It’s part of the business I guess ... I wish you never had to face any scrutiny,” he said. “But unfortunately with our job it is part of what we do.

“The most important thing for me is that we’re winning. Individual scrutiny comes and goes and right now I’m copping a little bit of stick. When it comes to cricket, fair enough, because I haven’t been performing as well as I’d like. I’d like to lead from the front with the bat as well, I’d like to make some runs.”

A senior World Cup organising official has played down concerns about facilities being ready for next month’s tournament.

There have been worries over the redevelopment of some grounds in India and Sri Lanka – who host the tournament along with Bangladesh – after deadlines of Nov 30 and Dec 31 came and went.

With the event starting on Feb 19, those concerns have become more acute – especially after last year’s Commonwealth Games fiasco. But Ratnakar Shetty, the tournament’s director and the administrative officer of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, dismissed concerns. “I think the concerns are more in the media than anything else,” Shetty said following an inspection by the International Cricket Council.

Ashes relinquished

Australia’s women regained the Ashes, lost to England in 2005, after Sarah Elliott hit an unbeaten 81 to guide her side to a seven-wicket win in the one-off Test in Sydney. Elliott and Alex Blackwell (74) shared a third-wicket stand of 125 as Australia chased 198 for victory.

Derbyshire sign Guptill

Derbyshire have signed New Zealand’s Martin Guptill as their second overseas player for the 2011 season. The batsman, 24, will take over from Australia’s Usman Khawaja midway through the summer.

Michael Clarke content to 'cop stick' as long as Australia keep beating England Michael,Clarke,content,stick,Australia,beating,England http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/8282048/Michael-Clarke-content-to-cop-stick-as-long-as-Australia-keep-beating-England.html

Australia v England - fifth one-day international: live

Wicket WICKET! Finn b Watson 35 There it is! Swing-and-a-miss from Finn and the ball just clips the bails off.

OVER 46 England 198/9 Anderson 20* Finn 35 Shane Watson is back for a bowl and Steve Finn absolutely nails him! That is a huuuuge six! 90 metres! And that's England's highest ever 10th-wicket partnership in ODIs!

OVER 45 England 192/9 Anderson 20* Finn 29 Wooooooaaaaaah, this Finn is on fire! Another ripper is sent towards the ropes, but a good dive from the man on the boundary prevents a four. More runs from England and they now need 58 runs from 5 overs.

OVER 44 England 187/9 Anderson 18* Finn 25 England's fun and games with the bat for this final wicket partnership looks to be coming to an end. Well the luck has to run out at some point right? Maybe not.... Another four from Finn!

OVER 43 England 178/9 Anderson 17* Finn 21* England end their batting powerplay with another boundary, this time from Finn, who sends it racing over midwicket and to the ropes.

OVER 42 England 173/9 Anderson 16* Finn 17* Single from Anderson brings up his career best score of 16. And to celebrate Finn sends Bollinger to the boundary for another four! Haha, and again from Finn. Stonker for four! Driven down the ground for four. This is fun now.

OVER 41 England 163/9 Anderson 15* Finn 8* Anderson piles on more misery for Australia with a single just past the right of gully. This really is commanding innings from the Lancastrian. Single from Finn to end the over and it's all England right now.

Email Sir Nick, The Ashes win was comprehensive in every way and the slow start especially from the batsmen in the ODIs could be accepted at a stretch. Unfortunately after today's display I feel there is a major problem and confusion within the management and players. I'm now panicking, not a chance in the World Cup. PS. My money is on Sri Lanka," mails Howard who's listening in Spain.

OVER 40 England 161/9 Anderson 14* Finn 7* More slow clap of death for Bollinger's bowling. I like it. Very gladitorial. But Finn slogs Dougie away! Not quite enough gas for four, but England run three and the brave resistance continues. Another four from Anderson! Comes down the ground and smashes it through midwicket for four. Crunch! And there's another four, this time from Finn! Drilled up and down the ground for a one-bounce four. Classy. The Rug went for 12 off that over.

OVER 39 England 149/9 Anderson 9* Finn 0* Here's Steven Finn for a bat. And like the maverick he is, the batting powerplay is instantly taken. Fab. Should knock off the 105 in double quick time now. Anderson is swinging like he's at Yankee Stadium so I don't see this lasting too long to be honest. Hoho, I take it back! That's four! Honest delivery from Watson but the Burnley Lara strikes out, scorching the ball down the ground to the boundary.

OVER 38 England 145/8 Shahzad 9* Anderson 5* Slow clap of death from the crowd as Bollinger steems in to Shahzad. And that's nearly a chance! Slow ball is fended away by Shahzad and it could have gone anywhere! Stumps were the most likely destination, but luckily for him the ball drops safely.

Wicket WICKET! Shahzad c Haddin b Bollinger 9 There it is! Bollinger finally finds the edge of Shahzad's bat and Haddin dives low to his right to take an excellent catch. Not long now.

Email "Not only is he liability opening his keeping has been rubbish in this series as well. Bring back Davies. Would be surprised if England win one of the last two remaining games. Think England will be better in the WC than this!! I would open with Cook!," mails Joanne.

OVER 37 England 145/8 Shahzad 9* Anderson 5 Watson takes pity on England and lets the comedy duo of Shahzad and Anderson trade singles before bowling a no-ball. From the free hit Shahzad absolutely cashes in with a huge six! It travelled 84m and just cleared the rope. Awesome.

OVER 36: England 135/8 Shahzad 1* Anderson 4* Now then! M-Jo's unleashed the bouncer! Fearsome it was too, speeding past Shahzad's helmet. Shahzad looks about as comfortable at the crease as Samit Patel does at Notts fitness testing. And there's almost yet another c*ck-up with a runner! Oh, this is embarrassing. Shahzad's runner is given the call and decides to just tear off. Luckily Anderson is awake and the pair successfully run a single. Brett Lee sniggers in the field.

OVER 35: England 134/8 Shahzad 0* Anderson 4* Here's the first bit of good news all day. The Premier's Flood Relief Appeal has raised $5,965,602. Astonishing effort. England's batting might have been a joke today but Anderson has just made Watson grimace. He edges one but it loops over second slip and away for four runs.

Email "My Dear Old Thing. Prior must not open for England in the WC. He's going to be a walking wicket playing shots like he did today, and giving one away at the start sets the tone for the innings," mails Tom in Norfolk.

OVER 34: England 129/8 Shahzad 0* Anderson 0* Welcome to farce-ville. We've got Shahzad with a runner and Anderson, who's chuckling at the ridiculousness of the situation, out in the middle with England needing more than 100 to win. Just awful. One wide in that over from Johnson so both the tail-enders remain on ducks.

OVER 33: England 128/8 Shahzad 0* Now then! It's Waaattttoooo for a bowl, and the local boy gets a throaty Queenslander cheer for his troubles. And two wickets!

Wicket WICKET! Woakes c Haddin b Watson 8 Double wicket maiden from Watson! Woakes played at a high delivery and gloved it behind to Haddin. Reckless, needless and in line with what England have offered today.

Wicket WICKET! Collingwood c Hastings b Watson 18 Soft dismissal (do I still need to type that or is it a given?) and the crowd are delirious that the local lad has picked up a wicket! Colly went after Watson's medium-pacer and lofted it over mid-on. Hastings did an excellent job in covering the yards and taking a fine catch. Ah dear.

OVER 32: England 128/6 Collingwood 18* Woakes 8* This would be some partnership if they did do something significant. But it's so easy for Australia to put the squeeze on now. I mean Chris Woakes is doing a nice job, but he's not there to face Mitchell Johnson with England needing well over 120 to win. The Aussies don't have to go through the motions from here, but not much more. Maiden over from Johnson is very handy indeed.

OVER 31: England 128/6 Collingwood 18* Woakes 8* England add six to their total off Smith and that's nice and positive but all seems a bit in vain. At this stage, after 31 overs, England were 140-4. So it's still on but they've obviously lost too many.

Twitter From Simon 'The Analyst' Hughes on Twitter: "England look mentally drained."

OVER 30: England 122/6 Collingwood 14* Woakes 6* Sky are recapping all the wickets from earlier today. Not exacly great viewing and I have to share Mr Vaughan's concerns over our World Cup chances. Mail me with your thoughts, if you have any.

OVER 29: England 118/6 Collingwood 12* Woakes 3* Smth's had a good day with the ball today. Seven overs bowled for one wicket and only 23 runs. Another tight one this, just three from it.

Twitter From Michael Vaughan on Twitter: "I hope my cooking is better than Englands batting...I hope we are not heading for another WC disappointment.. With this squad we shouldn't."

OVER 28: England 115/6 Collingwood 11* Woakes 2* Hoho, is this the first sign of a Paul Collingwood revival? It's a boundary from the red haired Durham lad, flicked wide of mid-on to the boundary. He follows it up with a clip through midwicket for two. Nice.

Twitter From Andrew Flintoff on Twitter: "Going to do a swim session , but swimming can't be that good , how fat are whales and they swim loads!"

OVER 27: England 108/6 Collingwood 5* Woakes 2* Smith bowling against this nervy duo and he's in a great position to heap the pain on England. Bit short with his first delivery though and Collingwood pushes him wide of mid-off for one. Woakes drives through the gap at cover to add another to the total, but England are living on borrowed time.

OVER 26: England 105/6 Collingwood 3* Woakes 1*

Wicket WICKET! Bell b Hastings 36 Bowled him! Bell is gone dragging on! He tried to open the face of the bat but got himself in a complete mess. England are finished now.

OVER 25: England 103/5 Bell 36* Collingwood 2* Nice from Bell, driving Smith down to long-off for a single. Collingwood then contributes by sending a cut through cover point before Bell ends the over by putting a single away towards long-on. Another tight over from Smith but the runs are still there from England. Shame about the wickets.

OVER 24: England 100/5 Bell 34* Collingwood 1* So we're down to the last partnership that you could realistically see making a big enough contribution to a winning total for England. There's Bell, who's not looked entirely comfortable in this match, and Collingwood, who's had an awful winter with the bat. Hmmmmm. Colly nudges one to leg to get off the mark before a single from Bell brings up the 100 for England.

OVER 23: England 98/5 Bell 33*

Wicket WICKET! Morgan c Johnson b Hastings 2 All over red rover! Morgan goes long and deep off Smith but only finds Johnson at long-off, who after a bit of a juggle, takes the catch. Not a good shot and it looks bleak for England now.

OVER 22: England 96/4 Bell 32* Morgan 1* A batting purist will love this. England's fourth-wicket partnership are digging deep and ticking off the runs with the minimum of fuss. But I can see how those brought up on a diet of T20 could find the lack of big hits frustrating.

Wicket WICKET! Pietersen c Lee b Hastings 40 Oh come on, Kevin! Not a lot going on but Hastings' slower-ball bouncer deceives KP. The ball slows on its way to Pietersen and he is caught between a pull and swing before top-edging it to Lee and mid-on. Momentum towards Australia after all that hard work from England.

OVER 21: England 92/3 Pietersen 38* Bell 31* Come on then, it's Pietersen against Smith. Time for some fireworks? Ah no.... He and Bell trade singles in a pretty tight spell of bowling from the young 'un. (I'm 25, can I call people young yet?)

OVER 20: England 89/3 Pietersen 37* Bell 29* Clarke starting to look a bit concerned out in the middle now. And anxious he might be. As long as these two are out there making runs this game is only going one way.

OVER 19: England 86/3 Pietersen 36* Bell 27* Bell pulls out a couple of pre-meditated sweeps for Smith's bowling and it works pretty well, Smith going for five. All good for England. Just keep the bowlers going for five-ish and you'll be there in no time.

OVER 18: England 81/3 Pietersen 35* Bell 23* Argh, that "catch" claim gets more annoying every time I look at it. Anyway Hastings is back for a go, and KP continues to fancy him (in the batting sense). Just three runs from the over but England are going well.

OVER 17: England 78/3 Pietersen 34* Bell 21* 'Right s*d this,' says Michael Clarke. Compulsory powerplay is over, and on comes the spinner, Steve Smith. The same Steve Smith who took no wickets during the Ashes series. Bell chips him over the field and he and KP run two. Now then! Australia are appealing for a catch! Oh that's rubbish. Shame on you Smith! Right, let me fill you in. KP dabbed at one for Smith it sat up for a low catching chance for Smith. He dives for it, drops the ball, then lands on it before scooping it up and claiming a catch. Key point is he dropped it! And that's a waste of everyone's time. Dweeb.

OVER 16: England 74/3 Pietersen 33* Bell 18* Quick single from Pietersen brings up the 50 partnership and what an excellent job they've done in stabilising the England innings. Two more from Bell to end the over and it does feel like these two are pretty comfortable.

OVER 15: England 70/3 Pietersen 32* Bell 15* I think there's some tennis on or something, but you're still with me right? Come on, it's Johnson bowling. That's always amusing, isn't it? Bell knocks a delivery away, off his glove I think, for a single to put KP on strike against Johnson. Now then! Nah, nothing explosive unfortunately. Pretty tight over actually.

OVER 14: England 69/3 Pietersen 32* Bell 14* Hastings is back for a bowl and KP is after him, eyeing him up like he would a lucrative commercial deal. Pietersen opens the face of his bat before gliding the ball to the third man boundary for four. Very nice shot and he's in control at the moment.

OVER 13: England 62/3 Pietersen 27* Bell 13* So Johnson continues. He's been going at around seven an over which is the Johnson we've seen the most of this winter. Of course he's capable of a magic over or two, but there's been no signs of that yet. More runs off M-Jo for England before a no-ball is called by umpire Rauf. Resulting ree hit is gobbled up by Bell and sent up down the ground for four. Another expensive over from Johnson - eight off it - helps this parternship up to 40.

OVER 12: England 54/3 Pietersen 25* Bell 8* Here's 'Big' John 'Wayne' Hastings for a bowl. His first ball finds the outside edge of Pietersen's bat and KP calls a quick single. Last ball of the over is paddled away by Pietersen for a single, and that's three off the over.

OVER 11: England 51/3 Pietersen 23* Bell 7* Australia have taken the bowling powerplay and Johnson will continue. Pietersen attempts a drive off M-Jo but he gets a thick outside edge that squirts behind, and away from the non-existent second slip, for four. Pietersen plays a defensive shot and considers a single before deciding against it. Bell is called back has a lot of room to make up! Only just does it too! Direct hit from the fielder and he was gone.

OVER 10: England 45/3 Pietersen 18* Bell 6* KP never tires of telling us he's a "big game player" and that's a fine stroke to back it up. Beautifully timed thwack to the ropes for four and England's rate is creeping up. More driving follows from Pietersen, down the ground for one, and you know what, it looks like he fancies this. Bell tries a drive - a ruddy unconvincing one - but luckily for him it lands safely away from Australian hands.

OVER 9: England 38/3 Pietersen 13* Bell 4* Here's Mitchell Johnson for a bowl. Not really the man you want to see when you desperately want to recuperate. But KP's not fussed! He drives one of Johnson's slingers straight down the ground and past Bell for four! England's rehabilitation has begun but when you put it into perspective, Australia were 48/0 at this stage. Stil lots of work for England to do.

OVER 8: England 30/3 Pietersen 6* Bell 3* Two men at the crease now who people love to wax lyrical about. Lovely stroke players etc etc. Well now they have to dig England out of a deep hole. Pulled up in the air by Bell! But it's safe! Last thing England need is a twitchy Bell. Dougie can smell blood..

OVER 7: England 27/3 Pietersen 5* Bell 1* What is going on at the Gabba? Well, apart from a live blogger's nightmare of consecutive wickets. England had a simple target but they've crumbled under the first sign of pressure. It's all Australia after seven overs!

Wicket WICKET! Trott c Bollinger b Lee 0 Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. England are in deep, deep trouble. Trott flicks an ordinary delivery to fine short leg and the bowlers combine!

OVER 6: England 22/2 Trott 0* Pietersen 2*

Wicket WICKET! Strauss c Smith b Bollinger 3 Dougie's got the captain! Strauss tries to pull Bollinger but only finds Smith at square leg. England all over the place!

OVER 5: England 20/1 Strauss 3* Lee is containing Strauss - who's pretty much a run a ball ODI batsman these days - very well. The England skipper should be mindful of getting bogged down by Lee. Just keep the score ticking over, Andrew..

Wicket WICKET! Prior b Lee 14 That's classic Brett Lee but an awful shot. Priot tries to nurdle Lee's snorting delivery down the leg side but he loses sight of it and the bails are removed by the paceman.

OVER 4: England 19/0 Strauss 2* Prior 14* Crowd really love Bolligner don't they? "LET'S DO DOUGIE, LET'S GO!" they chant. Prior's not interested though and he drives the Australian hero down the ground. There's a man there so no boundary but that was a commanding stroke. England going for it today. Short ball from Bollinger is given similarly dismissive treatment by Prior and he pulls it away for four. Nice.

OVER 3: England 13/0 Strauss 1* Prior 9* England's openers are certainly going for it! Lee offers Strauss a bit of width and the skipper gladly accepts pounding the bowler away to third man for a single. Prior grabs a single off the last ball and will face Bollinger in the next over. Nice enough start from England.

OVER 2: England 11/0 Strauss 0* Prior 8* Doug the Rug is into the attack and his first ball ricochets off Prior's thigh pad and away for a quick two runs. Bollinger's second is a monster that ends up smacking Prior in the neck. Ow. The crowd is getting behind Bollinger and he must feel ten foot tall. Until now! Prior tracks Bollinger's short delivery all the way before smacking it down the ground for four! Prior soon has another four when his, quite wild, swing races away to the ropes.

OVER 1: England 1/0 Strauss 0* Prior 0* It's Brett Lee with the cherry to start us off....and that's a wide down the off side. Nice start. Second one is much better, good length, plenty of pace and pings away from Strauss at the last minute. More excellence from Lee on the fourth delivery as Strauss swings-and-misses going for a drive. Short ball from Lee is delivered well over the 90mph mark and the seamer is loving the reaction he's getting from the crowd. Great opening duel and Strauss survives.

0728: Almost ready to start. This is a great test of England's resolve. Routine target but the pressure's on. What have you got, boys?

Twitter From Opta Jim on Twitter: "8 - Jonathan Trott has passed fifty 8 times in his fifteen ODI innings. Converter."

0725: Sky's in-studio analysts are struggling to be heard over an ABBA tribute band. That reminds me of the summer when Mamma Mia! was performed every night at an open-air theatre near my house. A long, noisy, summer.

0720: Good morning. Jonathan is busy dealing with something called the F...A.. Cup? (Football? It'll never catch on) so I'm with you for England's tilt at getting back into this series, or Australia's tilt at sealing the series. Depends. Well Australia have opened the batting and not really fired like they would wanted to, scoring 249. Thanks mostly to some wonderful bowling from Chris 'Woakesy' Woakes who finished with 6 for 45, the second-best figures ever in ODIs for England. Australia's batsman all made decent starts before getting out cheaply. Brad Haddin (37) and Michael Clarke (54) were the top scorers and that goes some way to telling you where Australia went wrong. If someone had tonned up or a few more had made fiddies they'd be comfortable. As it is England need to make 250 at five an over to win. Simple, right? Let's find out...

Australia v England - fifth one-day international: live Australia,England,fifth,oneday,international http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/8271854/Australia-v-England-fifth-one-day-international-live.html