Pre match reading: Here’s Barney Ronay’s take on the English summer of cricket just gone and Harry Brook as ODI captain:
We are out there to score runs. If you get caught somewhere on the boundary or in the field, then who cares?”
These were the words of stand in Captain Harry Brook in the moments after England were drubbed by Australia in the first ODI at Trent Bridge. Brook was perhaps trying to set a defiant tone in defeat, reaching for somewhere between bravado and positive thinking but his turn of phrase ended up sounding somewhat glib.
His side were outplayed by the Aussies in Nottingham, Travis Head putting together another – in a nifty phrase coined by my OBO colleague Rob Smyth – ‘dirty masterpiece’. Slugging his way to 154*, the walrus moustachioed Head took England’s bowlers to the dry cleaner and then out for a steak supper before never calling them again.
Headingley is the venue for the second match of five in the series. England will be cheered on by plenty in the ground who deeply care, not least in forking out for a ticket and journeying to the ground to watch some live cricket before the summer disappears for another year.
Play starts at 11am BST and I’ll be back shortly to bring you the news of the teams and the toss.
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