June 26, 2019 by admin

England feel the finch

London

Mitchell Starc bowled the perfect ball to Ben Stokes, knocking back the stumps, driving the third-last but deepest nail into England’s coffin.

The 64-run win put Australia at 12 points and took them to the World Cup semifinals, while England are faced with uncertainty.

Australia became the first team to qualify for the semifinals, England must win their next two games, against India and New Zealand, to make it. Hot favourites England face the prospect of not making the semis; they next face the two unbeaten teams of the tournament, India and New Zealand. England must wrest full points from India and New Zealand; else they could well be out.

Perfect yorker

Starc’s yorker to Ben Stokes, the sixth ball of the 37th over, swung in at a perfect length, pace, time. Stokes and Chris Woakes were repairing the mid-innings damage, added 53 off 10-odd overs, leaving themselves to score less than 100 off 13 overs. But the yorker did Stokes in, leaving him aghast. It was a splendid effort, 89 off 115 balls, slowish to the casual viewer, but it was an innings that not only kept England alive, it had also resuscitated them as the team lay down, awaiting the end.

But after him came the demise of England’s hopes.

Starc picked up four wickets, and yet his opening partner Jason Behrendorff bettered him, taking 5/45 off 10 overs. The two left-handed pacers had combined figures of 9/87 off 18.4 overs. England’s fearsome and violent batting line-up was left in tatters — none of them scored at a-run-a-ball. Three specialist batsmen got into the 20s but not beyond that. Captain Eoin Morgan couldn’t reach even 20, his innings cut short by a bouncer from Starc that he failed to connect with properly. Behrendorff got the dangerous Jonny Bairstow while Jos Buttler fell to Marcus Stoinis, with Usman Khawaja taking a sensational catch at the boundary, running close to the boundary rope.

Aaron’s effort

Earlier, captain Aaron finch scored his second century of the tournament, an exact 100 that put England under immense pressure even before the start of the final stage of the World Cup. Finch has been strangely anonymous in the last few weeks at the World Cup, despite a series of excellent performances in the tournament — 66, 6, 36, 82, 153, 53 had been his scores in the tournament so far, along with bowling figures of 1/13 against Pakistan. Yet, he’s been overshadowed by David Warner and Steve Smith. Thus today, crunchest of all crunch games, he had to do a bit of shouting to remind that he’s there, too, alive and hitting and leading a very strong Australian team.

But Smith, less on-your-face than most Australian captains of recent times — excepting, perhaps, for the exceedingly modest George Bailey —doesn’t mind anonymity off the pitch. He’s happy to concede that he’s quite boring as captain, and that his influence on the team is minimal. “I think we’ve got some great leaders in our squad as well, which really helps out; that everyone acts and prepares and trains and looks after each other like a leader. So I would say my influence is minimal,” he said last week.

Maximum impact

He’s maximised his impact, though.

The other day, Kagiso Rabada noted that David Warner is starting his innings a bit slower. That was the case today, too, and Finch took the early lead in their partnership, getting fours through an edge and then a spanking cover drive. Warner joined in the party with a pull off Jofra Archer, and the fun began.

Finch punished the short balls and drove powerfully straight when the ball was pitched up. Both Chris Woakes and Mark Wood were taken for fours, both through drives and pulls. The spinners, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid, suffered at his hands, too, Ali being hit for two sixers in two overs.

The wickets of Warner and Usman Khawaja caused a bit of a slowdown, but Finch did reach his 100 off 116 balls. The innings ended next ball, but he did enough to make himself noticed in the middle again, never mind his anonymity off the field.

HIGHLIGHTS

1ST opening pair — David Warner and Aaron Finch — in the World Cup history to hit five successive half-century partnerships
145 KPHYorker by Mitchell Starc to take the key wicket of England dangerman Ben Stokes
1ST Left-arm pace opening pair — Jason Behren dorff (5/44) and Mitchell Starc (4/43) — to share nine wickets in an ODI
3 Knockout matches won by England in the history of World Cup. They need at least three, if not four, wins to clinch their first title
500 Runs by David Warner make him the leading run-scorer in the World Cup. Aaron Finch is second on the list with 496 runs. Bangladesh’s all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan (476) is at the third spot

Scoreboard

Match #32 June 25: Australia vs England
Toss: England (Fielding)
Man of the Match: Aaron Finch

Australia

Runs Balls 4 6