England v Australia, 4th ODI, The Oval, June 30, 2010

Aus have been favourites for every single match this series, I suppose there is the feeling of 'must win sooner or later' about it.

Hehehe....... England win the toss again. There must be a head-heavy coin around. And Bresnan is still in. Having said that, he'll probably return with a 5-fer now just to prove me wrong. Anything under 280 will swing the match in our favour.

Fark me..... Bressie picked up a wicket!

Strange Paine's position in the team rarely gets questioned. He never looks particularly convincing and can be painstaking. Most of England's success in the one day arena in recent times has come chasing so it's up to the Aussies to finally put some pressure on them with the bat.

I think Paine has been most unimpressive for a while now - as a batsman anyway.

The Oval looks like the first 300 minimum wicket of the series - perhaps Aus can get more.

Ouch ....... Andersons over just gone for nine, but on another day both Clarke and Ponting could have found the fielder with mistimed shots. That's cricket for you.

Yessssss .... got him this time ( Ponting). Good time for us to have a fresh batsman in right at the start of the PP. Get rid of Clarke too and we should really slow down the scoring.

Sucked in Pup for 99*. He crabbed his way in the last few overs hitting singles while uberYT was smashing 4s.

Good score for Australia, but 291 is never out of reach at the Oval

I guess England might pay for having Wright at 6 if they lose a couple early (no doubt Bedwetter having his pegs dismantled)

Bookies have Aus 1.37

Still not convinced Kieswetter is a better option than Steve Davies as the ODI/T20, and test reserve keeper at this stage.

Ponting & Clarke's 155 2nd highest by an Australian pair for any wicket in an ODI at The Oval next to McCosker & Turner's opening partnership of 182 v. Sri Lanka in the inaugural WC in 1975.

2nd 50 partnership in ODIs for England 5th wicket v. Australia at The Oval - highest 95* by Atherton & Adam Hollioake in May 1997.

Morgan out - as Sir Mick might say, "it's all over now".

We had to show ourselves at some point I guess.

Harris' 5-32 BB by an Australian bowler in an ODI at The Oval beating Dennis Lillee's 4-35 in August 1980.

BB by an overseas bowler in an ODI at The Oval beating Jacob Oram's 5-36 for NZ v.USA in ICC Trophy in 2004.

Broad c Hussey b Harris 212, according to BBC. Must have been some final over... did we win then?

What's all this losing to the Aussies lark then? Feels a bit weird.

Only time we looked in with a sniff was during the Morgan/Yardy effort, otherwise not at the races today.

Re - Kieswetter, if he's being picked he has to play in T20 mode where he goes apesh!t. a s/r of 50 leaving us 40 after 10 - nah, may as well play someone else.

Anyhow, well bowled Harris - he's got some pretty dandy career stats in ODI's

Wonder if there'll be any changes to England for Lord's on Saturday - Bell & Shahzad for Wright & Bresnan?

I think those are a pretty good call Al.

That performance was a throwback to less competent England ODI sides; lacking in a strategy to implement a successful chase before being shown up by the lower order, who demonstrated, albeit too late, that scoring at the required run-rate was simple enough if one only allowed oneself to do it sensibly, having played oneself in. It's clear that despite vast improvement over the course of a not very long period of time, England are still somewhat English in their manner, and eradicating their foibles entirely shall be a longer process altogether than simply making them competitive. There are still four or five areas of concern within the side (new ball bowlers, opening partnership, number 3 and wicket-keeper) and not a lot of options from without that are threatening these positions. The only player really who seems hard done by is Jonathan Trott, who averaged 70-odd in the series before he was dropped. He may not score spectacularly quickly, but averaging circa 50 in ODIs is still worthy of note.

At 2-86 in the 20th, I wandered off to bed thinking this was another easy win for England. Pleasantly surprised that Drunky and Pup kicked on and set a reasonable target.

And talk about chalk and cheese when comparing Qunt M'Kay and Rhino Harris.

All a bit "meh" really.

Bit of a reality check for the Pommie drongoes.