London: It was reminiscent of the Australian swagger of yore as Aaron Finch’s pacers bossed arch-rivals England on their way to the World Cup semifinals with a 64-run victory here Tuesday.
While Australia became the first team to reach the semifinals of the showpiece, England’s defeat, their second straight following the stunning reverse to Sri Lanka, made their path to the last four way tougher than it was not less than a week ago.
Captain Finch (100, 116b, 11×4, 2×6) rose to the occasion with his second century of the tournament before England rallied to stop Australia at 285/7 in their blockbuster showdown.
In reply, England found the left-arm pace duo of Jason Behrendorff (5/43) and Mitchell Starc (4/44) too hot to handle, capitulating to 221 all out in 44.4 overs. Ben Stokes (89, 115b, 8×4, 2×6) waged a lonely battle.
England were off to the worst possible start, losing James Vince (zero) in only the second ball of the innings. Bigger blows awaited the hosts as the Lord’s saw in disbelief the quick departure of the in-from Joe Root (eight) followed by skipper Eoin Morgan (four).
At 26/3 in the sixth over, England were staring down the barrel against a side that is historically known to raise its game on the biggest stage, more so when the stakes are high.
England were pushed further down the abyss when Jonny Bairstow (27) was dismissed by Behrendorff, making it 53/4 in the 14th over. With a 71-run partnership for the fifth wicket, Stokes and Jos Buttler (25) somewhat rescued the innings.
The match was as good as over when Starc bowled Stokes with one of the tournament’s finest yorkers to leave the home team reeling at 177/6.
Earlier, comfortably placed at 185/3 in the 36th over, Australia were headed for a 300-plus total, but lost the plot due to England’s fine comeback and lack of discretion on part of most of the batsmen that followed Finch and David Warner (53, 61b, 6×4).
Sent into bat after Morgan called it right at the toss, Australia were given another fine start by their in-from openers, who took them to 123 in the 23rd over, when leading scorer Warner got out.
Dropped on 15, Finch went on to make his 15th ODI century, off 115 balls, but got out in the very next ball to leave the responsibility of finishing the innings in style on Steve Smith’s (38) shoulders.
Smith batted positively until he was sent back by Chris Woakes (2/46), while Alex Carey smashed 38 off 27 balls, but the defending champions seemed to have lost the plot with the wickets of Glenn Maxwell (12) and Marcus Stoinis (eight).
Brief scores: Australia 285/7 (Aaron Finch 100, David Warner 53; Chris Woakes 2/46) beat England 221 (Ben Stokes 89; Jason Behrendorff 5/43, Mitchell Starc 4/44) by 64 runs.
