Travis Head said he had enjoyed a “good night at the office” after his career-best 154 not out sealed a crushing seven-wicket win for world champions Australia over England in the first one-day international at Trent Bridge on Thursday.
Head, whose century steered Australia to a World Cup final win over India last year, gave one tough chance early on when Brydon Carse dropped a difficult catch at backward point but was otherwise in blistering form.
Having survived a testing new-ball spell from injury-blighted express quick Jofra Archer, playing his first ODI in over a year, left-handed opener Head, 30, plundered England’s attack during a 129-ball innings featuring 20 fours and five sixes
He received excellent support from Marnus Labuschagne during an unbroken partnership of 148 as Australia, chasing down a target of 316 with six overs to spare in dominant style, went 1-0 up in a five-match series.
Labuschagne had earlier starred with the ball, the part-time leg-spinner taking 3-39 as England slumped against Australia’s slow bowlers — Adam Zampa marked his 100th ODI with 3-49 — as a commanding position of 213-2 became a total of 315 all out despite opener Ben Duckett’s quickfire 95.
“It’s nice to get a hundred, it was a good night at the office,” said player-of-the-match Head, also a thorn in England’s side during the recent T20 series.
“It was difficult at the start,” he added. “Jof (Archer) is way too good for me…He’s an exceptionally good bowler. You’ve got to take the good with the bad…there wasn’t much in those first couple of overs, so I just tried to back my technique and tried to stay out there.”
Head, who also took a couple of wickets with his part-time spin on a Trent Bridge pitch renowned as an excellent batting surface, jokingly said: “Two for as well. I got a bit lucky at the start of my innings but I know if you get through that there’s a lot of runs on offer.”
There have been suggestions Head, who made a brilliant 163 in the middle-order during Australia’s World Test Championship final win over India last year, could replace the retired David Warner as an opener in red-ball cricket.
– ‘Keep the chatter’ –
But Head himself gave little away when asked about the prospect of facing the new ball in a Test match.
“Keep the chatter: it makes it interesting,” he said. “I’m not going to dive into that. I’ll just let that play out.”
England coach Marcus Trescothick, overseeing the ODI team for this series before Test boss Brendon McCullum takes over the white-ball sides as well, said Head was a tough opponent for any attack.
“Sometimes ‘width’ is even middle-and-off stump for him, because he creates that room so well,” explained Trescothick, himself a left-handed England opening batsman.
Australia have now won 13 consecutive ODIs, a run stretching back to the World Cup, with this latest success achieved without their three senior fast bowlers — Pat Cummins has been rested from the tour, while Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood missed Thursday’s match due to illness.
Only the celebrated Australia 2003 World Cup-winning side led by Ricky Ponting, with 21 straight victories, have enjoyed a longer unbeaten run at this level.
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