Australia 356-5 (Inglis 120*, Carey 69, Short 63) beat England 351-8 (Duckett 165 | Dwarshuis 3-66, Labuschagne 2-41) by five wickets
LAHORE — England fans must be wondering if they’ll ever see this team win a 50-over game again after they slumped to a gut-wrenching defeat by Australia in their opening Champions Trophy match in Lahore despite an innings for the ages from Ben Duckett.
Things have been bad right from the beginning of a calamitous World Cup campaign 15 months ago. But this defeat, their 17th in 24 games now since the start of that tournament in India, felt like probably the worst because this was a game they should have won.
Duckett’s imperious 165 from 143 balls helped England post 351 for eight from their 50 overs, the highest score by anyone at a Champions Trophy helping his team post the biggest total in the tournament’s history.
However, the feeling this misfiring batting line-up had left plenty of runs out there on a flat Lahore pitch was ultimately justified as an inspired 77-ball century from Yorkshire-born Josh Inglis saw a weakened Australia complete their chase of 352, a record for an International Cricket Council tournament, with 15 balls to spare.
The defeat not only increases the pressure on Buttler’s captaincy but has severely dented England’s chances of reaching the semi-finals of this tournament.
They will now need to win their final two group games against Afghanistan back here in Lahore on Wednesday and South Africa in Karachi next Saturday to stand any chance.
But the morale-sapping nature of this loss, their fifth in a row in ODIs, will be hard to come back from, especially for Duckett, who must be wondering just how he ended up on the losing side.
There were certainly no signs of the groin injury that had threatened the opener’s participation in this tournament as he struck the second-highest one-day score by an England player overseas.
The 30-year-old’s masterclass, spanning from the first to the 48th over of the innings, held together what was at times a shaky England batting effort.
In terms of the Ashes series Down Under later in the winter, though, too much should not be read into it Duckett’s performance given the paucity of an Australian attack that saw makeweights in Nathan Ellis, Ben Dwarshuis and Spencer Johnson replace the trio of champion quicks in captain Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc who are unavailable for this tournament.
Yet Duckett’s takedown of Adam Zampa, the spinner key to Australia’s World Cup win, showed what a fine knock this was. While Zampa took two for 14 off 24 deliveries against England’s other batters, Duckett plundered 50 from the leg-spinner’s other 36 balls.
His 158-run stand for the second wicket with Joe Root rescued England from 43 for two in the sixth over after the early losses of Phil Salt and Jamie Smith.
Root went on to score 68 in 78 balls, his 41st ODI half-century, but Harry Brook, Buttler and Liam Livingstone all failed in a lopsided scorecard that saw no other batter pass 23.
Still, England managed to eclipse 350 in an ODI for the first time in 23 matches, the last time coming against Bangladesh at the 2023 World Cup in Dharamshala during a rare win at that tournament.
But the fact it wasn’t enough on a belting Gaddafi Stadium track will rankle England, whose 83 off the last 10 overs can now be seen for what it was – a poor effort given they entered that phase of the game well set on 268 for four.
It’s not even as if England can say their bowlers didn’t start well, with early wickets from Jofra Archer and Mark Wood helping reduce Australia to 27 for two in the fifth over of the chase.
This is the pair of fast bowlers England hope they can unleash on Australia come that first Ashes Test at Perth on 21 November.
And they did get the better of two players who will be integral to Australia’s chances in that series – Archer taking a stunning caught and bowled chance to dismiss Travis Head and
Wood sending down a 93-miles-per-hour delivery outside off that Steve Smith, captain in Cummins’ absence, edge to slip.
There was always caution about just how strong England’s position was, though, given Pakistan chased down 349 with an over to spare at this venue against Australia in 2022.
Concern first started to arise when Australia put on 95 in 91 balls for their third wicket before Adil Rashid struck to remove Marnus Labuschagne in the 20th over.
The Aussies, with opener Matthew Short still in after passing fifty, needed 230 more to win at this stage.
But Livingstone made up for falling short with the bat when he got rid of Short for 63, taking a decent return catch off his own bowling in the 23rd over to reduce Australia to 136 for four. At this stage the WinViz algorithm used by broadcasters had England as an 82 per cent chance to win.
Yet a 146-run partnership between Inglis and Alex Carey spanning 116 balls made this a 50-50 game.
England didn’t help themselves when Archer dropped Carey on 49 off Adil Rashid when the stand had already gone past 100.
By the time they finally got rid of Carey for 69, Brydon Carse punctuating a torrid bowling performance with a crucial wicket in the 42nd over, Australia needed 70 off 50 balls.
With danger man Glenn Maxwell joining Inglis, now on an ODI career-best 79, the game was still in the balance.
But it wasn’t for long, Inglis, who moved from Leeds to Australia just a few weeks short of his 15th birthday, taking the game away from the country of his birth when he smashed a six off Archer to reach his maiden ODI century in the 45th over.
By the end of that over, Australia needed 34 from 30. That became four from 18 when Maxwell and Inglis monstered the 47th over bowled by Archer for 19. It was game over, as it might now be for England’s hopes in this tournament and Buttler’s captaincy.
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