AUSTRALIA v ENGLAND

At Perth, December 9. Australia won by six wickets. Toss: England. England had the makings of a competitive score until Larkins and Lamb were out to over-ambitious strokes in the nineteenth over, Lamb to his third ball. Smith and Stewart added 66 by the 36th, but with Rackemann in the final over of a remarkably hostile and accurate spell, Smith's attempted off-glide resulted only in an edge to the wicket-keeper. Three overs later, Alderman took a rolling catch right-handed at deep gully to send back Stewart. Although Bicknell (24 balls) gave the total a semblance of respectability, with Boon and Marsh putting on 56 in fourteen overs and the 100 coming up in the 25th, Australia predictably made light of it. Jones hit an enormous straight six into the Prindiville Stand as soon as Tufnell came on, yet it was only when the spinner flattened his arc, supposedly in self-defence, that Jones (74 balls) and Border scored off him more or less at will.

Man of the Match: D. M. Jones.