PYJAMA PARTIES? WE'VE HAD APLENTY!

JAMES WALLACE looks back at some memorable One-Day clashes between england and Australia

- JAMES WALLACE

The mega-wattage of an Ashes series steals the limelight in any English or Australian summer. Epic duels conducted in whites unfolding over days (sometimes just days, admittedly, Down Under) and weeks. Moments are made that live long in the memory, the victories becoming ever more rose-tinted, poignant even, the losses surprisingly still sticking in the craw. In the shadow of such feats, the white-ball stuff used to often feel tacked on at the start or the end the main event, an amuse-bouche or ‘waffer’ thin mint at the end of Mr Creosote’s five Test match belly-busting feast.

In recent years, the limited overs contests between the sides have meant more, either in what they might suggest is to come, a 50 or 20-over bellwether or, more recently, with ever more differing squads and ‘specialists’, as contests in their own right.

The Aussies are on these shores once more, and dang isn’t it lovely to see ‘em? Here, we recall some of the best pyjamaclad-ding-dongs you might’ve missed first time around.

England vs Australia, June 2018, 3rd ODI, Trent Bridge

Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy showed more than a glimpse of things to come in the World Cup the following year in this pyrotechnic filled performance. England smited 41 fours and 21 sixes against a wounded old enemy fresh off the back of ‘Sandpapergate’. Bairstow crunching 139 off 92 balls before Alex Hales (remember him?) bested that with 147 off the same number of deliveries.