England captain Harry Brook’s maiden one-day international century revived his side’s series hopes against Australia as they beat the world champions by 46 runs on Tuesday. This win leaves the series at 2-1 in the favour of Australia, however now England do stand a chance to win it if they manage to come out victorious in the remaining 2 matches.
After being put in to chase the big target of 305, England’s opening batters, Ben Duckett and Phil Salt departed cheaply before Will Jacks (84) and Harry Brook (110*) formed a 156-run partnership to get England into a strong position.
Brook would go on to score a sensational century before some big shots from Liam Livingstone saw England reach the total of 254/4 in 37.4 overs as the rain stopped play.
England benefitted from the Duckworth-Lewis method
But, the Three Lions were 46 runs ahead of where they needed to be under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method for weather-affected matches and, with a downpour preventing any further play, England managed to end Australia’s run of 14 consecutive ODI wins with a 46-run victory.
Brook was awarded with the Player of the Match award for his heroic century and the 25-year-old was absolutely elated to score his maiden ODI ton in 18 matches.
“It’s nice to get the first one on the board and hopefully plenty more to come. We just have to keep doing what we said we are going to do (in Friday’s fourth ODI at Lord’s) and keep being positive, take the game to them (Australia),” Brook said in the post-match presentation.
Australia captain Mitchell Marsh reflected on the disappointing defeat against their arch-rivals.
“I thought we did extremely well to get the 300 with conditions early on, a lot of seam and it was hard work. In one-day cricket with a big partnership you can set the game up for yourself, fair play to them (England),” Marsh said.
The fourth ODI of the series will be played at Lord’s on September 27.
