New-ball bowler of the day
When England won the toss and chose to bat, it seemed the Melbourne fans would have to wait for their home-town hero Brad Hodge to take an active part in his first international for nearly six years. Not so. George Bailey asked Hodge to bowl the first over of the innings. Hodge's offspinners have brought him 62 wickets in T20 cricket but he has not bowled this Big Bash League season, so it was a big ask. There were a couple of dot balls but Michael Lumb got him away for a couple of fours and after conceding 10 off the over, Hodge did not bowl again in the innings.
Run-out of the day
It was impossible to keep Hodge out of the game. After he bowled the first over, failed at a sliding save on the boundary and took a sharp catch at short cover, he produced one of the most remarkable events of the match when his direct hit from cover had Eoin Morgan run out in unusual circumstances. Morgan had dived to make his ground at the wicketkeeper's end and his bat slid over the crease, then bounced up into the air. When the stumps were broken, nothing was grounded behind the crease, although most of the bat was hovering over safe territory. The Laws of Cricket say a batsman is not out if he grounds his foot over the crease and then lifts it as the bails came off, but the bat is a different story, and the third umpire Simon Fry rightly ruled Morgan out.
Six of the day
When George Bailey lofted James Tredwell over long-on for six in the ninth over of Australia's chase, it ended any possibility of a rare six-less Twenty20 international. England's 9 for 130 did not include a single six and it was the first time they had completed a T20 innings without one since they cruised past their target of 127 against Pakistan in Cardiff in 2010. The last team to keep England to no sixes in the first innings of a T20 was the Netherlands, in what became a famous Dutch victory in the opening match of the World T20 at Lord's in 2009.
Twenty20 fan of the day
Neil Harvey was at the MCG on Friday for the unveiling of a statue of him in the so-called "Avenue of Legends" outside the ground, where he joined Shane Warne and AFL icon Norm Smith among the first people so honoured. As part of the honour, Harvey had to stay on for the match between Australia and England. But, at a lunch event on Thursday, he indicated he was not looking forward to that part of proceedings. "I'm not a fan," Harvey said of T20. "I have to go through the motions of watching one and I'm not looking forward to it too much."