Ashes 2017: Craig Overton puts down marker as England seal comfortable victory in second warm-up game
England cruised to a 192-run victory in Adelaide with Overton taking two of the three wickets needed on Saturday and returning overall figures of three for 15
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Your support makes all the difference.Craig Overton says he is ready to play in the Ashes after helping England wrap-up victory in 30 minutes on the final day of the pink-ball tour match against a Cricket Australia XI at the Adelaide Oval.
England cruised to a 192-run victory, with Overton taking two of the three wickets needed today and returning overall figures of three for 15 as the CA XI were dismissed for just 75 in their second innings.
Now he is eager to play in the final four-day tour match against the same opposition in Townsville starting on Wednesday so he can further stake his claim for a place in England’s XI for the first Test against Australia in Brisbane on November 23.
The 23-year-old looks almost certain to play at the Gabba given Jake Ball, his rival for the fourth seamer’s position in the team, is currently nursing an ankle injury that looks likely to see him miss the Townsville match.
Asked if he felt ready to take on Steve Smith’s Australians, Overton said: “Yes, I think so. It’s just about making sure I bowl the best I can when I get the chance. Hopefully that is good enough and I feel confident it is good enough. If I get the call happy days. I’ll be ready if I’m called upon.”
The CA XI had been reduced to 25 for seven the previous evening thanks to a fine spell of four for 12 from Chris Woakes.
They rallied to 70 for seven by the close thanks to a spirited eighth-wicket stand between Gurinder Sandu and Matthew Short. But Joe Root’s team took just 42 balls to wrap up victory today.
Overton got things started when he bowled Short in the first over of the day.
James Anderson then put his team on the brink of victory three overs later, trapping Gurinder Sandhu lbw on 17, before wrapping things up in his next over by having Dan Fallins caught by Alastair Cook at first slip.
England have called up 20-year-old left-arm fast bowler George Garton from the Lions squad ahead of next week’s final tour match in Townsville as cover for Ball.
However, Garton, who could play in Townsville, is expected to be released back to the Lions, who have training camps in Brisbane and Perth, after England’s week in far north Queensland.
The one concern for England during this game here in Adelaide was the batting after they lost their final five first-innings wickets for 22 runs and then lost seven for 45 during a second innings in which they were bowled out for 207.
Ryan Harris, the former Australia fast bowler who was coaching the CA XI here, believes that is a weakness his country can exploit during the Ashes.
“I think England’s batting is vulnerable, absolutely,” he said. “We’ve got some good intel and knowledge on what we want to do and I’ll pass that on to our bowlers. I’ll take as much back to the guys in Brisbane next week as I can. It’s all good going into a big series.”
Harris, part of the Australia team that whitewashed England 5-0 on their last Ashes tour in 2013-14, also confirmed the current team will target Root when the series starts.
“We’ve been known to target the captain and Joe Root is genuinely their best player,” he said. “You’ve got Alastair Cook, too, who knows these conditions pretty well so if you take the best two out it’s always going to hard. That’s what I’m sure the Australians are trying to do.”
Cook, England’s all-time leading runscorer and a batsman who scored 766 runs during the successful 2010-11 Ashes series in Australia, has struggled for form so far on this tour, following up a two-ball duck in the opening warm-up match in Perth with scores of 15 and 32 here.
Indeed, the opener is the only member of the top six not to have made a half-century in either of the first two warm-up matches.
“I think Cook looked a bit rusty,” said Harris. “He’s had a good county season but it’s different in our conditions. He had a very good 10-11 here so he knows what he has to do but I’m sure he’ll look forward to another hit next week. We know what he can do and we know he’s world-class – you don’t score 10,000 Test runs and not be any good but we’ll see when it comes to Brisbane.”
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