England and Australia are also pioneers of cricket’s limited over version

Mohandas Menon

17:39 02/09/2015

World Cup champions, Australia, after conceding the all-important Ashes, last month, are all set to take on hosts England in the five match ODI series beginning on Thursday, at the Rose Bowl, Southampton. This series has become all the more important to the visitors since they have now lost both the Test series and the one off T20I game on this tour. These teams, way back in 1971, played the first ever ODI game. Therefore historically, like the Ashes, this series too is important to both sides.

The idea of limited-over cricket was conceived as a remedy to the declining attendance at Test and first-class levels in England during the late 1950s. With the start of the Gillette Cup, a domestic limited (60) over tournament, in 1963, a new era had dawned in popularising the sport to the general public. However, despite this version's popularity during the 1960s, the cricket administrators did not find the need to play it internationally.

The first ever limited-over one-day international came about just by chance, when a hastily arranged match between Australia and England, was played at the MCG on January 5, 1971. On the final scheduled day of the rain aborted Test match, a limited over game was organised by the Australian Cricket Board, to compensate the disappointed public for the loss of cricket. Thus began a new revolution in international cricket, in a match that attracted a crowd of 46000 spectators and produced receipts of A$ 33,000.

The rest is history!

The brief scores of the match are provided below:

Played at Melbourne Cricket Ground on 5 January 1971

Toss: Australia (fielded)

England 190 (39.4 ov) John Edrich 82, Keith Fletcher 24, Alan Knott 24

Ashley Mallett 3/34, Keith Stackpole 3/40, Grath McKenzie 2/22

Australia 191/5 (34.6 ov) Ian Chappell 60, Doug Walters 41, Bill Lawry 27

Ray Illingworth 3/50, Ken Shuttleworth 1/29, Basil D’Oliveira 1/38

Result: Australia won by 5 wickets (42 balls to spare)

Note: Balls per over: 8

Below is a statistical look at how the pioneering sides have fared against each other in ODIs since that historic match.

Summary of match results

Venue	Mts	Eng	Aus	Tie	Nr	Period
England	57	26	27	2	2	1972-2013
Australia	66	21	44	0	1	1971-2015
Neutral	8	2	6	0	0	1985-2009
Total	131	49	77	2	3	1971-2015

Result summary in bilateral series in England

Month, Year	Mts	Eng	Aus	Tie	NR	Series won
August 1972	3	2	1	0	0	England
June1977	3	2	1	0	0	England
August 1980	2	2	0	0	0	England
June 1981	3	1	2	0	0	Australia
May-June 1985	3	1	2	0	0	Australia
May 1989	3	1	1	1	0	Drawn
May 1993	3	0	3	0	0	Australia
May 1997	3	3	0	0	0	England
July 2005	3	1	2	0	0	Australia
September 2009	7	1	6	0	0	Australia
June-July 2010	5	3	2	0	0	England
June-July 2012	4	4	0	0	0	England
September 2013	4	1	2	0	1	Australia
Total	46	22	22	1	1

Series summary in England: Played 13: England won 6, Australia won 6, drawn 1

Result summary in bilateral series in Australia

Month, Year	Mts	Eng	Aus	NR	Series won
1971	1	0	1	0	Australia
1975	1	1	0	0	England
1979	4	1	2	1	Australia
1988	1	0	1	0	Australia
2011	7	1	6	0	Australia
2014	5	1	4	0	Australia
Total	19	4	14	1

Series summary in Australia: Played 6: England won 1, Australia 5, drawn 0

Result summary in all bilateral series

Venue	Period	Series	Eng	Aus	Drawn
England	1972-2013	13	6	6	1
Australia	1971-2014	6	1	5	0
Neutral	–	0	0	0	0
Total	1971-2014	19	7	11	1

Highest team totals

For England
333-6	50 ov	Sydney	2-2-2011	(Lost)
320-8	50 ov	Birmingham	22-8-1980	(Won)
316-8	50 ov	Perth	24-1-2014	(Won)

For Australia
342-9	50 ov	Melbourne	14-2-2015	(Lost)
334-8	49.2 ov	Sydney	2-2-2011	(Won)
318-6	50 ov	Perth	15-12-2002	(Won)

Highest in England: 315/7 in 50 ov at Manchester, 8-9-2013 (Won)

Lowest team totals

For England
86-10	32.4 ov	Manchester	14-2-2015	(Lost)
93-10	36.2 ov	Leeds	2-2-2011	(Won)
94-10	7-2-1979	Melbourne	15-12-2002	(Won)

For Australia
70-10	25.2 ov	Birmingham	4-6-1977	(Lost)
101-10	44.5 ov	Melbourne	24-1-1979	(Lost)
109-10	27.3 ov	Sydney	26-1-1983	(Lost

Highest individual scores

For Engand
1395	by Graham Gooch	in 32 mts, 31 inns, ave 46.50	S/r 61.70
1200	by Eoin Morgan	in 36 mts, 35 inns, ave 40.00	S/r 89.22
1148	by Ian Bell	in 29 mts, 29 inns, ave 39.59	S/r 78.95

For Australia
1598	by Ricky Ponting	in 39 mts, 38 inns, ave 48.42	S/r 84.42
1430	by Michael Clarke	in 44 mts, 39 inns, ave 43.33	S/r 75.54
1302	by Allan Border	in 43 mts, 42 inns, ave 36.17	S/r 78.95

Best bowling in an innings

For England
6/45	by Chris Woakes	at Brisbane	30-1-2011	(Lost)
5/28	by Graeme Swann	at Chester-le-Street	20-9-2009	(Won)
5/31	by Mike Hendrick	at The Oval	20-8-1980	(Won)

For Australia
7/20	by Andy Bichel	at Port Elizabeth	2-3-2003	(Won)
6/14	by Gary Gilmour	at Leeds	18-6-1975	(Won)
5/18	by Gary Cosier	at Birmingham	4-6-1977	(Lost)

Leading wicket-takers

For England
38	by James Anderson	in 32 mts, ave 39.58	R/o 5.25
35	by Ian Botham	in 33 mts, ave 33.49	R/o 4.03
31	by Darren Gough	in 23 mts, ave 31.10	4-6-1977

Most in England: 22 wickets by Darren Gough in 14 mts, ave 27.50, R/o 5.16

For Australia
65	by Brett Lee	in 37 mts, ave 24.22	R/o 4.81
53	by Glenn McGrath	in 33 mts, ave 22.96	R/o 4.13
37	by Steve Waugh	in 41 mts, ave 32.08	R/o 5.02
37	by Mitchell Johnson	in 25 mts, ave 28.16	R/o 4.95