Key events
Cricket being cricket, we have to wait 30 minutes between the toss and the first ball, which is rather silly if you ask me.
Meanwhile, Andy Flintoff (no, not that one), noticed something from Jim’s Spin:
I have noticed that the famous ‘sons of’ mentioned in The Spin this week were all sons of former England captains (Atherton, Flintoff and Vaughan). When should we expect Alastair Cook’s or Andrew Strauss’s nippers to play first class cricket?
Match reduced to 43 overs a side
Unfortunately the rain has stripped us of 14 overs in total. Still, should be a good show.
Australia team
Three changes for the Australians and they’re all heavy hitters.
Inglis takes the gloves off Carey who keeps his place in the side as a specialist batter. Travis Head returns to the top of the order and Adam Zampa steps in.
Australia: Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (c), Steve Smith, Josh Inglis (wk), Marnus Labuschange, Alex Carey, Glenn Maxwell, Sean Abbott, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazelwood.
England team
England keep with the side that got the job done up in Durham.
Archer plays consecutive games as he builds back to full match sharpness. A tasty middle order will need to fire again.
England: Phil Salt, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Harry Brook (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Brydon carse, Jofra Archer, Matthew Potts, Adil Rashid.
Australia win the toss and bowl first
Just as Morgan predicted, the skipper who wins the coin flip will chase.
Three changes for the Aussies as Adam Zampa, Josh Inglis and Travis Head return to the side. Alex Carey retains his spot as a specialist batter.
Harry Brook would have bowled as well but doesn’t seem too bothered to be batting. England are unchanged which means Jofra Archer plays back to back games.
Sean Abbott is chatting with Mike Atherton for Sky.
It’s mostly platitudes, as you’d expect from a pretty polished pro. Some good bits on the transference of skills from red to white ball.
What I found most interesting is how he referred to Harry Brook and Will Jacks as “Brooksy” and “Jacksy”.
It’s been said before but it really is quite something how modern players are so chummy with each other. Not saying it’s a bad thing. It’s probably healthier to be honest. Still, quite the evolution.
Eoin Morgan is out in the middle. He says it all “looks good” and that the “wicket looks pretty hard”. He reckons the play is to bowl first.
Oh, and he of course makes mention of the “unbelievable drainage systemic” a Lord’s. Won’t be the last time we hear about the outfield and the slope.
Toss scheduled for 1.30pm BST
So we’re only an hour behind schedule. Great news though, we’ll be getting some action soon enough.
The players are warming up!
The covers are being removed. We’re getting closer.
In case you missed it, Ben Stokes is open to a return to England’s ODI team.
Is that wise? Would that further knacker his already knackered knees? That’s a silly question. If he’s willing and fit then he surely has to get back in. Right?
While we watch grown men sweep water around a big tarpaulin, let’s get back to some divisive rhetoric.
Here’s Krishna Moorthy:
Hello Daniel. Jay Shah is not the first person from India who is heading ICC, but he is certainly the least deserving. 10 years ago, he was a nobody but then his father’s party came to power and suddenly a nobody has turned into a Midas.
Nepotism in bureaucracy and organisations is vastly understated.
And speaking of nepotism, James Wallace penned this week’s Spin column where he considered the rise of some unfamiliar players with very familiar surnames.
The groundstaff are making movements, but we won’t get play any time soon. There’s a bunch of standing water – from what I can tell – and you don’t want to risk being the guy who dumps it from the covers onto the pitch (believe me, I’ve been that guy).
But this is good news as it means it’s stopped raining over Lord’s.
Simon Leyland has picked up something that I dangled in my premble.
He wants to know, “If Lords is not the HQ of cricket, where is?”
I guess right now it’s wherever Jay Shah resides.
Ricky Ponting just spent a good few minutes singing Will Jacks’ praises. He particularly loves his bat speed and footwork.
The young lad has certainly impressed and could be a mainstay for some time.
Toss delayed at Lord’s
As expected, the toss has been delayed.
The covers are on, the skies are grim. Might be a long wait.
We’ve got our first email and the title is simply ‘Nope’.
It’s from Rob:
Looking forward to some adversarial cricket today, but currently hiding in a cafe at Paddington until you say the rain has stopped. It’s up to you, Daniel.
I can do a lot mate, but I can’t control the weather. I’ll do my best though.
Lord’s security on high alert today.
As Ali Martin reports, it’s a year on from the ugly scenes in the Long Room and the Aussies will not want to go through that again.
My word, has anyone seen the Sri Lanka v New Zealand score?
Kamindu Mendis is 182 off 250 in a partnership of over 200. What does that pitch in Galle look like?
I’m afraid to say it’s pretty wet around the country.
Tanya Aldred is keeping an eye on the County Championship where a few games have already been called.
Preamble
Daniel Gallan
Hello, hello, happy Friday and welcome to our coverage of the 4th ODI between England and Australia.
It’s been a soggy morning in London but according to my gaslighting app, things should dry up relatively soon and we might even get a few rays of sunshine later. But don’t quote me on that.
I do hope we get a proper game as this series has been a load of fun and I’d quite like some more.
Travis Head pulverised England’s bowlers in Nottingham before a sloppy show from the hosts saw them stumble to a 68-run defeat at Headingley.
The series looked done and dusted but then a sensational century from skipper Harry Brook up in Durham kept things interesting. Of course Australia can take all the marbles with another win today, but England will back themselves after that DLS victory.
This is the first time Australia are playing an ODI at the (self-anointed) Home of Cricket since the 2019 World Cup. Back then Mitchell Starc blew New Zealand away in an 86-run win. The tall Aussie quick likes this ground. It was here he produced one of the great deliveries in living memory when he served up an unplayable yorker to bowl Ben Stokes in that same tournament.
Of course this is where England established themselves as one of the great 50-over sides in history and they’ll hope some of that magic rubs off on a new crop of players still finding their feet.
Looking forward to this one. Fingers crossed we don’t have a major delay.
If you’d like to get in touch, drop me a mail and I’ll do my best to stick your thoughts on the blog.
Play scheduled to start at 12.30pm BST.
Toss, teams and updates to come.