The County Scene - Week 15: Wild Thing makes Aussie hearts sing

Well I said it'd be 3-2 England. It's amazing how many people would have been delighted with that a fortnight ago and are now bitterly disappointed after England took an unassailable 3-0 lead last week. Credit to the Aussies for bouncing back - here's how they did it.

4th ODI (The Oval) - Australia 290-5 (50 overs) (Clarke 99* off 106, Ponting 92 off 93) beat England 212 (42.4 overs) (Yardy 57 off 63, Harris 8.4-1-32-5) by 78 runs. England simply got outclassed here. It was about time the skipper stood up and Ponting duly delivered here with an imperious knock that was rarely troubled by an England attack that suffered on a flat pitch. Inserting the Aussies was a decision that Strauss made based on what had come before in the series, not on a pitch which deteriorated through the match. The attack acquitted themselves well early on but it was the middle overs where they are usually so strong that Ponting and Clarke made their counter attack. Clarke was dropped early on 5 by Anderson and had to take a few risks to play his way back into form but was soon using his feet as well as ever in a serene knock which was rarely troubled after this early chance. He will be gutted that Steve Smith (18* off 8) hogged the strike in the last over, meaning he couldn't make a deserved ton. Who knew that Smith was a useful batsman as well as a promising leggie? Well, watch the T20 World Cup preview and you'll see that I did! If he works on his control and variation in his bowling, he's a viable Test Match spinner and No.6 batsman. Ryan Harris is another cementing a place in the Test side. He doesn't move the ball too much but bowls at brisk pace in a good area doing just enough to induce a false stroke, which he managed 5 times here. Strauss looked good again before giving it away (37 off 45) and Yardy finally showed international batting class but had too much work to do and not enough sheer hitting power. The highlight of the batting was Eoin Morgan's 3 massive 6s off James Hopes. Finally, I'd like to say how stupid it was to class this match as a day/nighter and start it at 1pm. The game finished at 8, which rendered the floodights pretty obsolete!

5th ODI (Lord's) - Australia 277/7 (50 overs) (Hussey 79 off 60, Marsh 59 off 50, Paine 54 off 90, Broad 10-0-64-4) beat England 235 (46.5 overs) (Collingwood 95 off 121, Tait 8.3-0-48-4) by 42 runs. No complaints, Australia were simply excellent today. Despite looking on the rack early after Tim Paine's slow trudge to fifty, the recalled Shaun Marsh and Mike Hussey really lifted things in the batting powerplay. Having controlled the early proceedings, the pace bowlers disappeared to all parts, with only Graeme Swann returning respectably economical figures (8-0-32-3), although Broad did pick up some cheap victims at the death with the old bumper! To me, Shaun Marsh is a forgotten man in Australian cricket, only ever included where there are injuries, in this case to Michael Clarke. People forget how destructive he is - the best batsman in the inaugral IPL in 2008. His technique is solid and his fielding is outstanding, demonstrated here by two great catches on the ropes to send back Morgan and Wright for England. It was he who started the big hitting and Mike Hussey followed, doing what he does best at the end of an innings. Paine's innings was responsible right up until he attempted to reverse-sweep Swann and was bowled. If you're playing the anchor role, put that shot away! However, this game will be remembered for the bowling of Shaun Tait, apparently clocked over 100mph today, although looking back at Hawk-Eye it "only" seems up to 97 - maybe Channel Five's speed gun is as excitable as it's anchor. His pace was too much for England, leading to calls for him to come back to first-class cricket in time for the Ashes. Will he be Australia's answer to Larwood? He certainly has got them running scared! Only Collingwood resisted, in a typically "gritty, back-to-the-wall effort", although he did benefit from some buffet bowling from Hussey in the middle!

England now go on to play Bangladesh in 3 ODIs. The outcome seems pretty clear-cut after the first warm-up match on Saturday:

Sussex 253 (47.5 overs) (Brown 58 off 52, Thornely 56 off 73) beat Bangladesh 104 (28.4 overs) by 149 runs.

Now, we all know that Sussex are a good county side, particularly in limited overs. But they fielded an inexperienced side with four debutants and only Monty Panesar with international experience. 104 all out is simply unacceptable from an international side. England have rested Pietersen and Swann for this series but it shouldn't make a difference. Pietersen has looked in great touch without getting a score and now has a slight niggle and Swann has been performing non-stop miracles for 12 months so both are due a rest. Ian Bell and James Tredwell should deputise and look to boost their averages. 3-0 England.

Pakistan continued their tour of the counties before starting against Australia today (which I won't be covering - too much going on in my life!). They look to be a pretty decent side:

Pakistan 360 (Umar Akmal 153, Lawson 4-93) and 264-4 (Umar Amin 73, Fawad Alam 68) drew with Kent 259 (Denly 63, Goodman 59, Mohammad Aamer 5-54) and 150-3 (Denly 69)

Pakistan 204-4 (20 overs) (Shoaib Malik 38* off 17 3 x 4s 2 x 6s, Umar Akmal 38 off 18 4 x 4s 2 x 6s) beat Essex 138-9 (20 overs) (Phillips 57 off 44 7 x 4s 1 x 6s, Abdul Razzaq 3-0-19-3, Saeed Ajmal 3-0-18-2) by 66 runs

Pakistan 134-4 (15.3 overs) (Shahzaib Hasan 64 off 40 7 x 4s 3 x 6s, Shahid Afridi 42 off 14 6 x 4s 2 x 6s) beat Northamptonshire 133-3 (20 overs) (Chigumbura 58* off 45 2 x 4s 3 x 6s, Wakely 55 off 43 7 x 4s, Saeed Ajmal 4-0-15-1, Mohammad Aamer 3-1-10-0) by 6 wickets with 27 balls remaining.

Maybe they'll pose more of a threat than we all thought, both on this tour and in next year's World Cup.

Right, there's been so much going on this week - but who is our Victoria Sponge Lad of the Week? The County Championship returned after a short break, so I thought I'd pick out the one outstanding performance as my lad. For once I'm going to select someone who found himself on the losing side despite a tremendous performance. He is another South African import who has looked good opening the batting all season. Here against Surrey, his side were responding to 391, with Mark Ramprakash making 99 after celebrating his hundred due to a scoreboard error! With his side all out for 237, our man had made 109, with only Luke Goddard the keeper as company with 67 - no-one else got past 14! Everyone chipped in at Surrey to set the side 408 to win. Our man made 105 this time as they damn near got there, with an in-form Chris Tremlett (4-94) putting paid to their hopes in a 42 run win

Wayne Madsen of Derbyshire - you are an unlucky LAD.
RM