Travis Head’s Unbeaten Century Powers Australia to Victory Against England in 1st ODI
Travis Head smashed an incredible 154 not out of 129 balls in the first ODI as Australia defeated England at Nottingham.
Australia easily overcame England’s 315 total, winning with plenty of overs remaining thanks in large part to Head’s unbroken 154 off 129 balls.
Key Performances and Match Results
Australia 317 for 3 (Head 154*, Labuschagne 77*) beat England 315 (Duckett 95, Labuschagne 3-39, Zampa 3-49) by 7 wickets.
Match Analysis
It was the story of two unusual Trent Bridge openers, both left-handers who were aggressive and loved hitting the ball, especially through anything that was even slightly off-line or long. Ben Duckett’s innings ended modestly at 95 from 91 balls, which allowed Australia to mount a valiant comeback. However, Travis Head’s innings continued to climb, reaching 154 not out from 129 balls and winning the first ODI by seven wickets.
The main reason Australia overcome the odds was Head’s converted century, which was his second against England and his sixth in 66 ODIs. They also lost a lot of important players, including Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, two of the “big three” (along with the absent Pat Cummins) without whom Australia had lost their last eight ODIs against England.
The other was the tenacity of their improvised attack, which was extended to eight players, including four spinners, when Ben Dwarshuis, who had just finished his international debut by bowling Phil Salt, was forced to leave the field after just four overs due to a torn pectoral muscle.
After their historic thrashing at Trent Bridge in 2018, Australia was ready for another massive chase at 213 for 2 in the 33rd over, with Duckett and Will Jacks demonstrating once more what an invitingly flat pitch Trent Bridge can be.
Then, though, came the less well-known legbreaks of Marnus Labuschagne, whose 3 for 39 in six overs not only included the crucial wickets of Duckett and Harry Brook, both to looping return catches, but also set Australia’s top leggie, Adam Zampa, on fire after he responded with 3 for 49 after a leaking first three overs.
With Matthew Short’s offspin returning a first-ever ODI wicket, England was bowled out for 315 in a stunning collapse of 8 for 102 in 17.1 overs. Head then gave notice that this match was now his to win by consecutively picking up Jacob Bethell and Adil Rashid. Australia’s spinners combined to grab 9 wickets for 190 in 30.4 overs, an impact that England’s spin unit, captained by Adil Rashid (who is still one wicket short of 200 in ODIs), could not match.
Similar to Head, Labuschagne was still in the early stages of the game. There was almost nobody better suited to act as a foil to the now free-flowing Head, having arrived practically slap-bang in the thick of Australia’s chase, at 169 for 3 in the 27th over after Cameron Green had become Bethell’s maiden ODI wicket.
With six overs remaining unutilized, he hit the winning boundary off Jacks during his pitch-perfect innings of 77 not out from 61 balls, capping an uninterrupted fourth-wicket stand of 148 from 107 balls.
After being destroyed in the 2023 World Cup and aside from a seldom remembered campaign in the Caribbean in December, this was the de facto reset of England’s ODI fortunes. A newly assembled squad, captained by Brook for the first time, displayed potential in spurts, most notably during Duckett and Jack’s 120-run partnership for the second wicket from precisely 100 balls.
Even though they were having success in the first part of their innings, Eoin Morgan from the Sky commentary box said their strategy was “measured,” which is a depressingly mild way of saying that they might easily be destroyed by a more forceful showing.
That was indeed the case, as Australia defeated England by ten sixes to eight, with five coming from Head and three from Steve Smith, who made a particularly forceful appearance at the top of the order. Following Mitchell Marsh’s early exit, Smith’s relentless onslaught drove his team ahead of the pace at 69 for 1 during the powerplay, setting up Head for the long haul with a fifty off runs-a-ball.
On the sixth, Head had a stroke of luck when Brydon Carse, coming in from the boundary at deep point, nearly came off a copy of Ben Stokes’ iconic “you cannot do that” shot from the 2019 World Cup.
Head’s early innings were highlighted by an intriguing match he had with Jofra Archer, who was playing in his first ODI in eighteen months. With the new ball in hand, Archer produced a few unplayable deliveries, such as a cutter that had Head staring up at the sky in amazement, but he was also dismissed for 53 runs in six overs, including an incredible flip for six off the toes that forced him to return the disbelieving expression.
It was a case of what-might-have-been for England, especially for Duckett, whose self-admonition was evident as he conceded an international century for the second time this month following his 86 against Sri Lanka in the Oval Test.
Duckett took particular advantage of a nervous Sean Abbott in his first chance to play the now-familiar opening role in ODIs, hitting four fours in an over en route to a 49-ball fifty. This meant that Marsh was already looking for substitute bowlers, even before it was confirmed that Dwarshuis had strained his pectoral muscle with an off-balance shy from the outfield.
In their most recent ODI match, Zampa was the bane of England’s batting, taking 3 for 21 in Ahmedabad during the 2023 World Cup. But Jacks hit his second delivery back over his head for six, and by the time the century stand arrived in 86 balls, he had conceded 27 runs in his opening three-over attack.
But Zampa was not kept out of the action for long in his 100th ODI as Jacks drove on the up to cover. After 30 overs, England were worryingly positioned at 201 for 2, and Brook had struck six off Short’s part-timers with two beautifully timed drives over cover.
Enter Labuschagne, for what appeared to be a leg-break speculative spell. Still, his effect was like a well-aimed covert weapon. He struck a googly with the fourth ball of his spell, which stayed in the pitch long enough to thwart Duckett’s back-foot push. He then reached to his left to pluck the easiest of caught-and-bowleds. After an over, that googly reappeared, and Brook mistimed another push, this time right back to the bowler.
After Aaron Hardie at deep midwicket had to give up a chance to save the boundary, Jamie Smith came and went for 23, caught in the deep two balls. At 256 for 5, England’s hopes of a 350-plus innings were once again in the hands of their main men from the T20I series, Liam Livingstone and Bethell, who was playing his second format debut of the week.
Livingstone decided to dismiss Zampa as soon as he resumed the attack, even though he still had three overs left in his arsenal. It was not the best choice. The rest came in a modest manner after a massive thrash through the line skewed to Green at long range. As it happened, way too meek.
