Banton’s century leads England to emphatic win in second ODI amid Australian soap opera

The Guardian

As much as the sandpaper soap opera continued to deal in alternative facts on Sunday, recollections of this second one-day international are unlikely to differ. For Tom Banton and Gus Atkinson, architects of an emphatic 135-run victory for England that levelled the series, it was unquestionably a match to remember. Banton was sublime after England were asked to bat first, unfurling a crisp 121 from just 99 balls to underpin an imposing total of 355 for six. No touring side had ever gone bigger on Australian soil – the ideal platform for Harry Brook’s pace attack to release the handbrake and…