AUS vs ENG: Mahli Beardman takes 6-24 on ODI debut as Australia win
21-year-old Mahli Beardman broke a 38-year Australian record with 6-24 as England crashed to 131 in Perth. Australia won the 1st ODI by seven wickets.
Australia beat England by seven wickets in the first one-day international in Perth on Friday, 13 November, and the man everyone is searching for is Mahli Beardman. The 21-year-old fast bowler from Western Australia took 6 for 24 in 7.4 overs on his ODI debut, the best figures ever by an Australian on a first ODI appearance.
England were bowled out for 131 in 33.4 overs. Australia knocked the runs off in just 23.3 overs, with 159 balls to spare.
How did Mahli Beardman take six wickets?
Australia won the toss and bowled. Beardman struck with only his eighth ball in ODI cricket, and then the game got away from England in a hurry. According to the Associated Press, he had captain Harry Brook caught for 1 and then removed Joe Root for 17, in what was Root’s 200th ODI. Josh Inglis held the catches behind the stumps for Brook, Root and Jordan Cox, Willow Sports reported.
The real damage came in one burst: Cox went for 2, Sam Curran for a duck in the same over, and Liam Dawson for nought in the next. CricTracker counted five of his wickets inside 28 balls. He finished the job by having Jofra Archer caught at gully for 11.
England were 65 for 8 after 19 overs. Without a ninth-wicket stand between Will Jacks (25 off 47 balls) and Gus Atkinson, who was left unbeaten on 29, they would not have passed 100.
Left-armer Spencer Johnson took 3 for 42 at the other end, including Ben Duckett and a one-handed, leaping return catch to send back Jamie Overton.
What record did Beardman break?
Before Friday, the best figures by an Australian on ODI debut were Tony Dodemaide’s 5 for 21 against Sri Lanka in 1988. That mark stood for 38 years. Beardman is also the first Australian to take six wickets on ODI debut, and CricTracker listed him as only the fifth bowler in the world to do it.
His only earlier international game was a T20 against Pakistan in Lahore in January, so Pakistani fans may remember the name.
“It’s a great privilege and honour to be able to represent my country,” Beardman said in a TV interview after the innings. He added that it all “happened very quickly”.
How did Australia chase 132?
Not quite smoothly at first. Travis Head was bowled by Atkinson for a first-ball duck in the second over. Captain Mitchell Marsh then took the game away with 50 off 30 balls, including four sixes, before he holed out off Overton. Cooper Connolly made 27 before falling to Archer, and Matt Renshaw and Inglis finished it.
Why does this matter for England?
This is a second-string Australian attack. Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Scott Boland are all resting before a four-Test series against New Zealand, the AP reported. England were still beaten in half the overs.
It also follows a rough run for Brook’s side. England arrived from the tri-series in Pakistan, where they lost three games, including a one-wicket defeat to Pakistan, and only won their last match against Sri Lanka.
The series was already noisy before a ball was bowled. Cummins used a press conference in Sydney, hours before the toss, to reject claims in Usman Khawaja’s autobiography about the 2018 sandpaper scandal.
When is the 2nd ODI?
The second match is in Adelaide on Sunday, 15 November, and the third and last ODI is in Hobart on Wednesday. Five T20s follow. Watch whether England’s top order can handle Beardman’s bounce a second time.
