England v Australia - the shape-up at the half way point

A series between Australia and England is renowned for its pain and passion, ultimately turning the great theatres of cricket into a coliseum-esque stage for the ecstasy and heartache of an Ashes series to be played out in front of adoring crowds of millions. 

This summer the treat is once again Australia, but the fight is not played out over 25 days and is not for the urn, instead cricket followers are experiencing a concept wholly new – an ODI series against a youthful looking Australian side just clutching their world no1 ranking. 

Australia’s recently mixed bag of ODI results show that by no means do they dominate their opponents as they did in the early-mid noughties.  Old campaigner Brett Lee is as destructive as those days, but the Australia around him has changed. 

Their batting line up fizzles out beyond the fifth batsman and it is credit to England’s bowlers that, even without Jimmy Anderson on Sunday, they were able to prevent the Australians accumulating a big score.  

Only Brett Lee and Michael Clarke seem able to provide the knock-out punches, a last reminder of the days when Australia bulldozed their way through cricket matches.  Nonetheless, the visitors are providing an interesting warm-up act to what is likely to be seen in the two 2013 Ashes series and the English fans are lapping up the ‘new youf’ paraded by Clarke in this series. 

Also, the movement in the Australian team between Lord's and the Kia Oval, Forest replaced Smith and David Hussey dropped a place in the batting order, reflected England’s stamp of authority over their opponents.  Mitchell Johnson, coming in for Cummins, quite literally wobbled under the pressure of the fan’s ‘love to hate’ relationship, bowling three no-balls and not completing his allocated 10 overs. 

This ODI series, so far, has an air of expectation about it, as both sides expect to win. Australia only appear as the underdog, but if England were to steal their world ranking from them with a 5-0 whitewash it would be an extraordinary feat.  By going 2-0 up in the series England are on track to hold the top world ranking in every form of the game, the first side in history to do so, but Australia are not out of this series and could still clinch victory.