Bowling blitz breeds World Cup confidence

Some early Australia Day rain followed by enervating heat might have rendered conditions for today's Gillette ODI more Bengaluru than Birmingham, but it could have provided an intriguing foretaste of next year's ICC World Cup in the United Kingdom.

The rarity of finding a lively pitch amid draining humidity at Adelaide Oval was highlighted by the fact that, upon winning the coin toss, Steve Smith opted to do what no Australia skipper has dared in more than quarter of a century of ODIs at the venue and sent in his opposition.

A decision that was so quickly vindicated it was feared that the match might not make it to the day's celebratory military jet flyover and accompanying 21-gun salute that was scheduled for 7.23pm.

But in reducing England to 5-8 on a pitch that yielded good pace and bounce as well as just enough lateral movement to render batting a challenge more so than the charity it can so often be on flat, bare limited-overs tracks, Australia gained more than just a belated victory.

They earned validation for a bowling plan they seem set to take to the next iteration of the showpiece ODI tournament, that will be played early in the 2019 northern summer when pitches on the British Isles can be far more spicy than the region's traditional cuisine.

And the prospect of unleashing a bowling attack led by Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, all armed with a hard, shiny white ball that is known to nip around more than its red counterpart in favourable conditions, is generating enthusiasm among the fast bowlers' cartel.

Even if they know that a scoreline of 5-8 happens along only once in an international players' career, if at all.

In the wake of Australia's four-wicket win, their first of the series that England leads 3-1 with one game remaining in Perth on Sunday, Cummins conceded that his team's failure in the preceding games was their inability to curb England's free-scoring top-order batters.

And writ large among the reasons for that was their inability to make regular breakthroughs with the new ball.

While the carnage that unfolded in the first hour today might have been an exercise in over-compensating, it revealed the value in employing what the Australians unashamedly describe as Test match bowling which they feel will win them games when conditions suit.

As they did today, and which many judges believe might also be the case in the early rounds of next year's World Cup when ball could conceivably dominate bat as it did in the 1999 campaign which was also staged in the UK and started in mid-May.

"I think more than anything, just knowing that what we're trying to do is the right thing," Cummins said tonight in assessing a bowling strategy that looked ineffective at times in the first three games but irresistible in the opening half hour on Australia Day.

"We're trying to bowl Test match areas and it's good that you get rewarded on wickets with a bit in it.

"It just feels like that window at the start of an innings is getting fairly small, when the ball swings and nips around.

"On these types of wickets, I think you can give yourself five or 10 overs then it feels like (batters) can cash in big time.

"I thought it was a really good wicket, maybe that's because I'm a bowler.

"The last couple of years here at Adelaide Oval it's a pretty similar wicket, it just feels like it's got a lot of bounce and pace.

"There wasn't a heap of sideways movement, if anything it felt like one of those days instead of a couple of play and misses they just happened to nick them."

Cummins' assessment of the Adelaide pitch, which behaved not dissimilarly to those rolled out for day-night Test matches that boast more grass than when the venue was a batters' haven years earlier, was clearly not shared by England captain Eoin Morgan.

When told that Cummins had rated the surface on which his normally free-wheeling batters had struggled to post 196 after their catastrophic start "good", Morgan smiled and said simply "interesting … we've never been 5-8".

But he also noted that the match had been effectively decided by that opening act, and that it was the quality of Australia's bowling – from Cummins and Hazlewood, with Starc rested from the match – that stood out because of their preparedness to utilise Test match tactics.

"I thought Australia bowled really well, took advantage of conditions and really were relentless in just traditional line and length," Morgan said.

As results over the preceding weeks showed, Australia is currently far from a slick ODI unit and despite being the defending champion they will likely find themselves in England's shadow when predictions for the 2019 World Cup are formally lodged.

England, having failed to lift the trophy after 11 attempts over more than 40 years, have identified the Cup as a priority and the evolution of their ODI outfit to one of the world's most potent in the past two years underscores their ambition.

But Cummins, who was part of the squad that triumphed in the previous World Cup tournament held in Australia and New Zealand in 2015, believes the team that Steve Smith will lead to Britain in 2019 is now starting to take shape.

And performances such as the one in Adelaide, that brought them a win far more hard fought than appeared likely when half their rivals' batting was shot out before their total had reached 10, can only help regenerate the feeling that carried them to success three years ago.

"You look forward to the World Cup from whenever the last one finishes, so that's going to be a big tournament for us," Cummins said.

"That's why we always talk about trying to get that winning team together, because the year leading into that 2015 World Cup was a pretty special team.

"It feels like a good group at the moment, and we can start something special."

2017-18 International Fixtures

Gillette ODI Series v England

Australia ODI squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Cameron White, Adam Zampa.

England ODI squad: Eoin Morgan (c), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Tom Curran, Alex Hales, Dawid Malan, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.

First ODI England won by five wickets at the MCG

Second ODI England won by four wickets at the Gabba

Third ODI England won by 16 runs at the SCG

Fourth ODI Australia won by three wickets at Adelaide Oval

Fifth ODI Perth Stadium, January 28. Tickets

Prime Minister's XI

PM's XI v England Manuka Oval, February 2. Tickets

Gillette T20 trans-Tasman Tri-Series

Australia T20 squad: David Warner (c), Aaron Finch (vc), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Ben Dwarshuis, Travis Head, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, D'Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa.

England T20 squad: Eoin Morgan (c), Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, David Willey, Mark Wood.

First T20I Australia v NZ, SCG, February 3. Tickets

Second T20I Australia v England, Blundstone Arena, February 7. Tickets

Third T20I Australia v England, MCG, February 10. Tickets

Fourth T20I NZ v England, Wellington, February 14

Fifth T20I NZ v Australia, Eden Park, February 16

Sixth T20I NZ v England, Seddon Park, February 18

Final TBC, Eden Park, February 21