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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Australia crush England to reach World Cup semi-finals

By AFP
June 26, 2019

LONDON: Australia captain Aaron Finch hit a hundred before left-arm quicks Jason Behrendorff and Mitchell Starc shared nine wickets as the reigning champions thumped England by 64 runs at Lord’s on Tuesday to book their place in the semi-finals of the World Cup.

Finch made exactly 100 in a total of 285-7 before England slumped to 221 all out with 32 balls left. The recalled Behrendorff took 5-44 — his first five-wicket haul in a One-day International — while Starc became the leading bowler at the tournament with 19 scalps thanks to a haul of 4-43.

England, bidding to win a first World Cup title, can still qualify for the semi-finals but they are likely to need to beat at least one of India and New Zealand in their remaining two group games.

“There are teams that you have confidence playing against but I have had plenty of low scores against England as well,” said man-of-the-match Finch. “It was nipping around first thing. We were as tight as we could be and then took advantage of any width.”

England’s reply saw them lose a wicket off just the second ball of their chase, with the struggling James Vince — only playing because Jason Roy was out with a hamstring injury — bowled by a Behrendorff inswinger.

Starc then took two wickets in nine balls. Test skipper Joe Root was plumb lbw to an inswinger for eight before England captain Eoin Morgan (four) fell into a hooking trap when a top-edge was held safely by Pat Cummins at fine leg.

Jonny Bairstow fell to a careless hook off Behrendorff before Stokes and Jos Buttler (25) repaired some of the damage with a fifth-wicket stand of 71. Buttler was well caught by Usman Khawaja off Marcus Stoinis.

Starc was brought back to take a key wicket and duly obliged with a thunderbolt yorker, his 18th wicket of the tournament, that ended Stokes’s 115-ball innings of 89, including eight fours and two sixes.

Stokes’s dismissal left England 177-6 in the 37th over and effectively ended the contest.Earlier Finch, dropped on 15, and fellow opener David Warner (53) came through some testing early overs to share a stand of 123 as too many of England’s pacemen, with the exception of Chris Woakes, dropped short.

The skipper’s exit sparked a late flurry of wickets but Australia had enough runs on the board.

England won toss

Australia

*A Finch c Woakes b Archer 100

D Warner c Root b Ali 53

U Khawaja b Stokes 23

S Smith c Archer b Woakes 38

G Maxwell c Buttler b Wood 12

M Stoinis run out 8

†A Carey not out 38

P Cummins c Buttler b Woakes 1

M Starc not out 4

Did not bat: J Behrendorff, N Lyon

Extras (lb4, w4) 8

Total (7 wickets, 50 overs) 285

Fall: 1-123, 2-173, 3-185, 4-213, 5-228, 6-250, 7-259

Bowling: Woakes 10-0-46-2; Archer 9-0-56-1; Wood 9-0-59-1; Stokes 6-0-29-1; Ali 6-0-42-1; Rashid 10-0-49-0

England

J Vince b Behrendorff 0

J Bairstow c Cummins b Behrendorff 27

J Root lbw b Starc 8

*E Morgan c Cummins b Starc 4

B Stokes b Starc 89

†J Buttler c Khawaja b Stoinis 25

C Woakes c Finch b Behrendorff 26

Moeen Ali c Carey b Behrendorff 6

A Rashid c Stoinis b Starc 25

J Archer c Warner b Behrendorff 1

M Wood not out 1

Extras (lb5, b1, w3) 9

Total (all out, 44.4 overs) 221

Fall: 1-0, 2-15, 3-26, 4-53, 5-124, 6-177, 7-189, 8-202, 9-211, 10-221

Bowling: Behrendorff 10-0-44-5; Starc 8.4-1-43-4; Cummins 8-1-41-0; Lyon 9-0-43-0; Stoinis 7-0-29-1; Maxwell 2-0-15-0

Result: Australia won by 64 runs

Man of the Match: Aaron Finch (Australia)

Umpires: Chris Gaffaney (New Zealand), Sundaram Ravi (India). TV umpire: Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka). Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka)