Australia no match for England

Press, 25 January 1979, Page 34

Australia no match for England

NZPA Melbourne England is the master of both die test and one-day cricket scene. It proved this in no uncertain manner at the M.C.G. yesterday when it made winning really look easy in taking Australia apart for a crushing sevenwickets win in the one-day international.

It did it with plenty of time up its sleeve and an abundance of overs remaining. Long before the anticipated finishing time, England had the Australians on their knees. The Australian innings was still in progress when defeat looked a distinct possibility. When the English attack left the Australian batting more or less in tatters for a miserable 101 in 197 min, it only needed a reasonable showing from the earlyorder English batsmen to pave the way for a grand win.

That is exactly the way it worked out in spite of an early setback with the loss of the captain. Mike Brearley, with the total at only seven.

When the speedster, Rodney Hogg, put Brearley out of business for a duck the crowd roared for more but it never came in the quantity it demanded. It was ironic that most of the last few runs which helped seal the win were taken off Hogg. Hogg’s fire was quickly put out by a succession of batsmen but he was not

alone in a dismal day for the Australian attack as wickets were few and far between during the 153 min the Englishmen took to clinch the win.

Geoff Boycott batted right through the two hours and a half of the England innings for what was an invaluable 39 and only the closingstage enterprise of David Gower (19) robbed him of the chance of hitting the winning run. AUSTRALIA G. Wood c Gower b Edmonds 28 A. Hilditch c Baitstow b Botham to A. Border c Willis b Hendrick it G. Yallop run out 9 K. Hughes lbw b Hendrick 0 P. Carlson c Randall b Willis 11 T. Laughlin c Willis b Hendrick 6 J. Maclean c Edmonds b Botham .11 R. Hogg c Botham b Hendrick 4 G. Dymock c and b Botham 1 A. Hurst not out 0 Extras (b 4. Ib2 nb4) .. 10 Total 101 Fall: 27, 52. 54, 55. 76. 78. 94 . 99, 101, 101. Bowling.—Willis, 8. 4. 15. 1: Lever, 5 2,7, 0; Hendrick. 8. 1, 25. 4; Botham, 4.5, 2, 16, 3; Edmonds, 7. 0, 26. 1; Gooch, 1,0, 2. 0. ENGLAND G. Boycott not out .. .. 39 M. Brearley b Hogg 0 D. Randall c Yallop b Dymock .. ..12 G. Gooch b Carlson . . 23 D. Gower not out .. .. 19 Extras (lbs, nb4) .. .. 9 Total for 3 wickets .. 102 Fall: 7. 29, 69. Bowling.—Hogg. 6,1, 20. 1; Dymock, 6, 1. 16, 1; Laughlin, 5,1, 13, 0; Carlson, 5,0, 21. 1, Hurst. 5.2, 1, 14. 0; Border, 1,0, 9, 0.