ONCE upon a time 242 was about par in a one-day international.

On Wednesday morning (AEST), Australia managed to lose an ODI by 242 runs.

Unsurprisingly it is the biggest defeat in the country’s history and it came after conceding a record-breaking total of 6-481.

It was a total so big that it would have been intimidating in the Test arena and former England captain Michael Vaughan called on Eoin Morgan to employ tactics normally used in the five-day format.

Still, it could have been worse for Australia. Fox Sports commentator and Australian great Adam Gilchrist thought the hosts had left some runs out there.

Alex Hales, who battered 147 from 92 balls, thought so too. The brutal right-hander revealed that the team was targeting a total of 500.
“There was a moment when Morgs (captain Eoin Morgan) came out but we didn’t quite get there unfortunately,” Hales said after play. “He was saying ‘if ever there is a chance, now is it’ but I just couldn’t quite get going at the end with those wide slower balls… but what a day!”

While Gilchrist was able to see the lighter side of the battering Australia suffered, Shane Warne was left staggered by the scorecard.

For India’s Sourav Ganguly, the eighth-greatest run-scorer in ODI history, the match was worrying for the sport itself. Ganguly posited that it was unacceptable for a country that has produced some of the game’s finest ever bowlers to concede nearly 500 runs in an innings.

It is Australia’s fourth straight defeat since being caught ball-tampering in Cape Town and Tim Paine’s side has not come close in any of them.