The hosts Australia registered their first victory in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 as they beat England by a margin of 111 runs. The Australians were at their supreme against their old rivals and never gave them any sort of glance at the finishing line as they held the upperhand in the match right from the word go.
Photo: AP
George Bailey, captaining the side in the absence of Michael Clarke, lost the toss but did not look too disappointed to find Eoin Morgan opting to bowl first. David Warner and Aaron Finch made a bright start scoring at a rate of more than 8 runs in an over and reached the 50-run mark in just 37 balls. Before that Aaron Finch had survived a dropped chance when he faced his second ball only. Chris Woakes was the culprit for dropping a fairly easy one at square-leg position. Warner also got a let off few balls later. But his stay at the crease was shortened as Stuart Broad got through his defense when he was on 22. The very next ball Broad picked up Shane Watson as Watson edged one to the keeper. Few overs later Steve Smith followed them into the pavilion, thanks to some disciplined bowling from Chris Woakes and Australia was in a spot of bother at 70-3. In came the stand-in captain. Finch at the other end was going all guns blazing. The duo stitched a partnership of 146 runs to set the platform for a huge total. Finch scored a brilliant century before finally getting run out on 135. It was followed by some sublime hitting from Mitchell Marsh (23), Glen Maxwell (66) and Brad Haddin (31) and Australia finished with 342-9 on the board. Also there was a hat-trick for Steve Finn in the end as he picked up Haddin, Maxwell and Mitchell Johnson in the final three balls of the innings. Other than that there was very little that could be discussed regarding the English bowling attack. All the bowlers took a hammering as the lack of a quality spinner looked quite evident in the end.
Photo: AP
Australia carried their momentum into the second innings and made a great start picking up Moeen Ali (10) early. Ian Bell along with Gary Ballance tried to steady the ship for the English but the Australian bowling was too hot to handle. After the fall of Ian bell (36), the English batting line-up fell like nine pins. They slumped to 92-6 as the Australian bowling was excellently supported by some scintillating work on the field. James Taylor who suffered a demotion in the batting line-up turned out to be England’s highest scorer. In fact he remained not out on 98 from 90 balls when some umpiring mistake adjudged James Anderson run out. Taylor batting on 98 was at first given out but it had to be changed once Taylor reviewed it. But by the time the umpire had raised his finger there were appeals made at the other end for a run out. Now the question arises whether the ball should have been called a dead ball after the first decision was altered or not. The commentators and the critics think that it should have been called a dead ball. The umpires thought it should not have been and Taylor was denied a century on world cup debut. However that would have delayed the inevitable as it was well over before it was actually over. Mitchell Marsh picked up 5 wickets while Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson picked up couple of wickets each.
Photo: Reuters
It was a match that lacked nothing at all. There were a couple of match winning performances from the Finch and Marsh; there was a hat-trick for Steve Finn; then there was a controversial end to the match which denied a youngster a world cup century. It was just the kind of drama one could expect in an Australia-England tie and it just set the tone for the rest of the tournament.
Tags: Australia Cricket news England ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 world cup World Cup 2015 World Cup cricket
