England thumped arch-rivals Australia by eight wickets in their Super 12 game at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021.
England made a statement of intent at the expense of Australia, as they completed a thrashing to remain unbeaten in the Super 12 stage of the World Cup.
Jos Buttler led the carnage with the bat, smashing the Australian bowlers to all corners en route his 71* off just 32 balls, as England chased down 126 with eight wickets and 8.2 overs remaining.
Earlier, opting to bowl first, England made good use of the conditions to bundle Australia out for 125. Though the Aussies recovered from a horror start through Aaron Finch and the lower order, they failed to set up a total that would challenge the fiery England line-up.
Chris Woakes and Chris Jordan were the stars with the ball, accounting for five wickets between them, with Jordan named Player of the Match for figures of 3/17 in four overs.
England pacers make merry
As they have done in previous matches, England opted to start with spin at one end, going with Adil Rashid in the first over.
At the other end, Woakes did exactly what was expected of him: getting the early wickets in the Powerplay. Getting the ball to move off the seam, Woakes induced an outside edge from David Warner, who had just got back into form in the previous game against Sri Lanka.
Jordan replaced Rashid and struck immediately off his first ball, but the wicket itself was as much the fielder’s as it was the bowler’s. Stationed at mid-on, Woakes took a sensational one-handed catch tumbling backwards to dismiss Steve Smith.
The Chris Woakes show continued as the right-arm pacer trapped the dangerous Glenn Maxwell leg before wicket. Jordan and Woakes kept the lid on scoring in the Powerplay as Australia finished with just one boundary in the first six overs.
Rashid was brought back into the attack after the fielding restriction were lifted and made an instant impact, outfoxing Marcus Stonis with the googly to trap him in front of the stumps.
Finch leads recovery with lower order
The spinners continued to stifle the batters as Australia limped to 41/4 at the halfway stage.
The pressure eventually paid off as Matthew Wade tried to hit Australia out of trouble, but ended up holing out to Jason Roy at long-on.
At the other end, Finch motored on, and gave the run-rate a much-needed push with three fours in two overs. Ashton Agar, who was brought into the XI in place of Mitchell Marsh, landed a couple of hefty blows that cleared the boundary as Australia enjoyed a fruitful period of play that fetched them 38 runs in three overs.
Once Agar perished, Cummins took Tymal Mills to the cleaners, smacking two sixes off his first two balls to take Australia’s score past 100.
Jordan, however, ensured that Finch and Cummins don’t inflict more damage, scalping their wickets off consecutive deliveries while giving away just two runs off the penultimate over.
Mills took a wicket in the final over, but was also England’s most expensive bowler with figures of 2/45, while the rest of the four bowlers went for under 6.
Buttler’s blitzkrieg leads England to win
England knocked off half the target inside the Powerplay as Jason Roy and Buttler took the attack to the Australian bowlers.
They hit at least a boundary every over, finishing with 66 inside the first six, the highest Powerplay score in the World Cup so far.
After hitting a four each in the first two overs, they took the aerial route with Roy pulling Cummins over the boundary while Buttler smashed Agar for a big one.
Brought back for the final over of the fielding restrictions, Mitchell Starc was taken to the cleaners by Buttler, who smoked two effortless sixes.
There was some joy for Australia as they finally broke the partnership through Adam Zampa, who trapped Roy in front of the stumps. The wicket did not slow Buttler down though: he smacked Starc for two more fours before bringing up his fifty with a massive six.
Agar got the better of Dawid Malan with the arm ball before Jonny Bairstow and Buttler smashed Zampa for three sixes in the next over to bring the required runs down to single digits. Bairstow hit the winning runs for England as they got home with 50 balls to spare.
Result
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| David Warner | c Chris Woakes b Jos Buttler | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Aaron Finch | c Jonny Bairstow b Chris Jordan | 44 | 48 | 4 | 0 | 91.67 |
| Steve Smith | c Chris Woakes b Chris Jordan | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 40.00 |
| Glenn Maxwell | lbw b Chris Woakes | 6 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 66.67 |
| Marcus Stoinis | lbw b Adil Rashid | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Matthew Wade | c Jason Roy b Liam Livingstone | 18 | 18 | 2 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Ashton Agar | c Liam Livingstone b Tymal Mills | 20 | 20 | 0 | 2 | 100.00 |
| Pat Cummins | b Chris Jordan | 12 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 400.00 |
| Mitchell Starc | c Jos Buttler b Tymal Mills | 13 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 216.67 |
| Adam Zampa | run out () | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 25.00 |
| Josh Hazlewood, | not out | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Extras | 9 (b 0 , lb 6 , nb 0, w 3, pen 0) |
| Total | 126/10 (20 Overs, RR: 6.3) |
| Fall of Wickets | 1-7 (1.2) David Warner, 2-8 (2.1) Steve Smith, 3-15 (3.5) Glenn Maxwell, 4-21 (6.1) Marcus Stoinis, 5-51 (11.4) Matthew Wade, 6-98 (17.4) Ashton Agar, 7-110 (18.1) Aaron Finch, 8-110 (18.2) Pat Cummins, 9-119 (19.4) Adam Zampa, 10-125 (19.6) Mitchell Starc, |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adil Rashid | 4 | 0 | 19 | 1 | 4.75 | |
| Chris Woakes | 4 | 0 | 23 | 2 | 5.75 | |
| Chris Jordan | 4 | 0 | 17 | 3 | 4.25 | |
| Liam Livingstone | 4 | 0 | 15 | 1 | 3.75 | |
| Tymal Mills | 4 | 0 | 45 | 2 | 11.25 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jos Buttler | lbw b Adam Zampa | 22 | 18 | 1 | 1 | 122.22 |
| Jason Roy | not out | 71 | 32 | 5 | 5 | 221.88 |
| Dawid Malan | c Matthew Wade b Ashton Agar | 8 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Jonny Bairstow | not out | 16 | 11 | 0 | 2 | 145.45 |
| Extras | 9 (b 5 , lb 0 , nb 1, w 3, pen 0) |
| Total | 126/2 (11.4 Overs, RR: 10.8) |
| Fall of Wickets | 1-66 (6.2) Jos Buttler, 2-97 (9.1) Dawid Malan, |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Josh Hazlewood, | 3 | 0 | 37 | 0 | 12.33 | |
| Mitchell Starc | 2 | 0 | 18 | 0 | 9.00 | |
| Pat Cummins | 1 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 14.00 | |
| Ashton Agar | 2.4 | 0 | 15 | 1 | 6.25 | |
| Adam Zampa | 3 | 0 | 37 | 1 | 12.33 | |
