"It's Dawid Malan vs Australia" - Twitterati applaud the left-handed batter's exceptional knock in the 1st ODI

Dawid Malan
Dawid Malan notched his career-high score in the first ODI against Australia

England batter Dawid Malan hit the second ODI hundred of his career during the series opener against Australia at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday, November 17. He became the fourth English player to record a ton at the venue after David Gower, Graeme Hick, and Jonathan Trott.

The recently crowned T20 World Cup champions were in peril in Pat Cummins' maiden outing as ODI skipper. After being asked to bat first, England lost three wickets in the powerplay. Jason Roy's return to the national team setup did not pan out as hoped as he was dismissed for just six runs.

The visitors were reduced to 66-4 in the 14th over following Sam Billings' dismissal to Marcus Stoinis. Malan held his ground and anchored the innings with skipper Jos Buttler providing company from the other end. He changed gears after the skipper departed in the 24th over.

While wickets continued to tumble at the other end, the left-handed batter brought up his fifty in 64 deliveries. He retained the majority of the strike after England were reduced to 199-7 and found a reliable partner in David Willey.

England fans were delighted with the batter's display under pressure as he steered the side towards a competitive total. Here are some of the reactions on Twitter:

Dawid Malan implodes after reaching the three-figure mark

Malan reached the three-figure mark in 107 deliveries. With England in a relatively good position and Willey holding the fort at the other end, Malan opted to go for rewarding shots.

He played the slog sweep to good effect and proceeded to score the last 34 runs of his innings off just 21 deliveries to take England past the 250-run mark. He overtook his previous ODI highest score of 125 in the process as well.

His marathon innings came to an end after he attempted to slog Adam Zampa over long-off. The long straight boundaries at Adelaide proved too much for Malan as the catch was safely pouched by Ashton Agar in the deep.

Malan departed after scoring 134 runs off 128 deliveries. His knock was studded with 12 fours and four sixes.

At the time of writing, the tail-enders were busy amassing handy runs in the last set of overs as the visitors have so far scored 266-8 in 46.3 overs.

Will the left-handed batter be a part of England's 2023 World Cup campaign? Let us know what you think.

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