Matthew Wade’s quick-fire 71 not out revived Australia and took them to 305 for 6 against England in the first One-Day International in Southampton on Thursday.
Australia were struggling at one stage when they lost four wickets for 29 runs to be 193 for 6 in the 37th over. However, Wade and Mitchell Marsh turned the tide with a seventh-wicket stand of 112 in 13 overs after Adil Rashid, the legspinner, took 4 for 59.
Marsh brought up Australia’s 300 by hitting Chris Woakes for six down the ground off the penultimate ball of the innings. Wade, who took nine balls to score his first run, faced 50 deliveries in total, including 12 fours as he atoned for his part in the run out of Shane Watson.
The next best score in the innings was David Warner’s 59. After Australia won the toss, Joe Burns (44) and Warner, the openers, made a solid start. Warner had a reprieve on 18 when Woakes failed to hold on to a caught and bowled chance.
England, who had won both the preceding Ashes Test series and Monday’s lone Twenty20 International against Australia in Cardiff, started to choke off the supply of runs.
Burns fell when he hit a Rashid full toss back to the bowler to end a first-wicket stand of 76. Warner, unusually, was scoring at under a run-a-ball and went when he edged an intended drive to Woakes at short third-man.
George Bailey then went down the pitch to smash Rashid high over long-on for the first six of the innings. Smith followed suit with an on-drive that cleared the same boundary but, next ball, he hit a Rashid full toss to Ben Stokes at mid-wicket, having made 44. Rashid then struck again when he had Bailey leg before for 23 with a quicker ball that skidded on.
Brief Scores
Aus: 305/6 (Warner 59, Wade 71*; Rashid 4/59) vs Eng.