Barbados: Australia were looking to continue their great form as they played arch-rivals England at the Kensington Oval in Barbados. England’s opening match against Scotland was washed out so the defending champions really needed a win here. England won the toss and decided to bowl first.
The Australian openers, Travis Head and David Warner gave their side an explosive start. Both of them smashed the English bowlers around the park. Warner played a quick-fire innings of 39 before losing his wicket in the fifth over but Australia had already reached 70 runs by that time.
Head also departed in the next over which led to captain Mitchell Marsh and Glenn Maxwell taking the Australian innings forward. Both played good cameos of 35 and 28 respectively before Marcus Stoinis came in and smashed another 30 runs to carry Australia to the biggest total of the World Cup so far at 201/7 in 20 overs.
In reply, England’s openers, Phil Salt and Jos Buttler also gave a great start to their side. They kept up with the required run-rate and it looked as if England had a shot at chasing the mammoth total. However, Adam Zampa took the huge wicket of Phil Salt in the seventh over and it all went downhill for England from that point on.
Zampa got Buttler’s wicket in his next over and the batsmen who came in next weren’t able to do much for England. They were not able to form big partnerships and the wickets kept on tumbling. Moeen Ali and Harry Brook played decent cameos, but Australia left England far-behind as they restricted their score to 165/6 in 20 overs and won the match by 36 runs. Zampa was awarded with the man-of-the-match award for dismissing both of England’s openers and for giving only 28 runs in his 4 overs.
The win saw Australia remain at the top of Group C with 4 points while England remained second bottom. The Englishmen will be looking for their first win of the tournament when they face Oman in their next fixture while Australia will be looking to make it three wins out of three matches when they go up against Namibia next.