Clarke And Ponting Steer Australia To 290 At The Oval

Clarke And Ponting Steer Australia To 290 At The Oval

Ricky Ponting prepares to reverse sweep as Craig Kieswetter looks on at The Oval

©REUTERS/Philip Brown (BRITAIN - Tags: SPORT CRICKET) Picture Supplied by Action Images

Clarke And Ponting Steer Australia To 290 At The Oval

Michael Clarke scored an unbeaten 99 as Australia scored 290 for five

©REUTERS/Philip Brown (BRITAIN - Tags: SPORT CRICKET) Picture Supplied by Action Images

Australia 290-5 (Clarke 99no, Ponting 92) v England
Fourth One-Day International, The Oval
Scorecard

Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting both narrowly missed out on centuries as Australia posted a score of 290 for five in the fourth One-Day International against England at The Oval.

Captain Ponting, taking charge of Australia for a record 219th time, scored 92 and his vice-captain Clarke was left stranded on 99 from 106 balls at the end of the innings.

England, unchanged for the fourth match in a row, elected to field first and struck early to remove Tim Paine when he chipped Tim Bresnan to Eoin Morgan at mid-off for eight before Shane Watson (41) and Ponting steadied the ship.

Watson looked in good touch, hitting five fours and a six, before lofting Graeme Swann into the deep where Morgan took his second catch.

Ponting, who passed 13,000 ODI runs in the course of his innings, then stroked ten fours and shared a third-wicket stand of 155 with Clarke, who hit seven fours.

Ponting fell to the first ball of the batting Power Play when he mistimed a drive and was caught by Andrew Strauss off James Anderson.

Cameron White hit a quickfire 17 and Michael Hussey was run out for one before Clarke was denied a shot at his fifth ODI century thanks to a fine cameo of 18 not out in eight balls at the death from Steven Smith, who took Bresnan for ten runs in four balls in the final over after Clarke had taken a single earlier on.

Anderson, Bresnan, Swann and Stuart Broad took a wicket apiece for England, who lead the five-match series 3-0.

© Cricket World 2010

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