In-focus

Cricket

World Cup 2019: England thrash Australia by 8 wickets to reach final

Dunya News

Jason Roy hit a blistering 85 as England reached a victory target of 224 with a mammoth 107 balls to

BIRMINGHAM (AFP) – England booked their place in the World Cup final against New Zealand with a dominant eight-wicket win over reigning champions Australia at Edgbaston on Thursday.

AUS vs ENG Scorecard

To view complete scoreboard, visit: https://dunyanews.tv/cwc2019/?match-id=38568

Jason Roy hit a blistering 85 as England reached a victory target of 224 with a mammoth 107 balls to spare after restricting Australia.

Openers Roy and Jonny Bairstow (34) put on 124 for the first wicket, their fourth consecutive century stand.

England, losing finalists in 1979, 1987 and 1992, will now face New Zealand, who have also yet to win the World Cup after finishing runners-up to Australia four years ago, in Sunday’s final at Lord’s following the Black Caps’ surprise semi-final win over India.

"I’m pretty speechless," said man-of-the-match Chris Woakes. "It was an incredible performance from the whole team. It started with the bowling performance and then the way they knocked that off was outstanding.

"There were some nerves around this morning but that’s natural going into a semi-final. The way we produced the goods just showed how good we are and where we are at as a team."

Roy, who missed three matches earlier in the tournament with a torn hamstring, was in particularly good form, hitting left-arm fast bowler Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon for sixes.

Australia were in desperate need of early wickets after suffering a top-order collapse on the way to being dismissed for 223, with the record five-time champions thankful for Steve Smith’s battling 85. 

All three of England’s defeats this tournament -- including a 64-run grou- stage loss to Australia -- have come batting second but Roy and Bairstow showed few signs of nerves in Birmingham.

Australia captain Aaron Finch turned to Steve Smith’s occasional leg-spin in a desperate bid to break the partnership.
this Australia side on the best ground in the world is amazing."

Smith booed

Smith was booed by a large crowd, a reflection of the former Australia captain’s role in a ball-tampering scandal in South Africa that saw him banned for 12 months.

But the jeers turned to cheers as Roy hit three huge straight sixes in as many balls.

Bairstow fell lbw to Starc, who in the process set a new record for most wickets at a single World Cup of 27.

Roy was in sight of a hundred when he was given out caught behind down the legside by wicketkeeper Alex Carey off fast bowler Pat Cummins.

The batsman was visibly angry and had to be ushered away from the crease by square leg umpire Marais Erasmus. England had earlier squandered their lone review.

Test skipper Joe Root (49 not out) and England captain Eoin Morgan (45 not out) finished the job as the crowd chanted "cricket’s coming home".

Defeat meant Australia suffered their first loss in eight World Cup semi-finals.

Earlier, Woakes and Adil Rashid each took three wickets apiece.

Woakes struck twice early on at his Warwickshire home ground as Australia slumped to 14-3 after winning the toss.

Australia’s prolific opening pair of David Warner and Finch, as well as Peter Handscomb, were all back in the pavilion by the seventh over.

Warner, who like Smith walked out to boos because of his role in the ball-tampering scandal, returned to even louder cat-calls after being dismissed for nine.

Smith and Alex Carey steadied the innings with a fourth-wicket stand of 103 but wickets tumbled at regular intervals and Australia were unable to set England a testing target.

Woakes hails ‘incredible’ England after hosts power into World Cup final

Chris Woakes saluted England’s "incredible" eight-wicket demolition of Australia as the hosts swaggered into their first World Cup final since 1992.

Woakes won the man-of-the-match award at Edgbaston after taking 3-20 in a lethal eight-over spell that included the key wicket of opener David Warner.

Thanks to Woakes and fellow pacemen Jofra Archer, Australia collapsed to 14-3 and never really recovered as they were dismissed for 223.

England took just 32.1 overs to reach their victory target and book their final date with New Zealand at Lord’s on Sunday.

Woakes admitted it was a perfect day for England, who have never won the 50-over World Cup.

"I’m pretty speechless. It was an incredible performance from the whole team, started well with the bowling and then the batting was outstanding," Woakes told Sky Sports.

"The way we have produced the goods shows how good we are and we’re really pleased.

"I don’t think it was a bad wicket, we just found the right length and they had to rebuild and we kept the pressure on.

"We got off to a flyer and when chasing a relatively small total, that’s the difference."

Woakes admitted England’s stars had been nervous ahead of their country’s first World Cup semi-final since 1992, but they quickly banished the butterflies with a blistering start.

"There were some nerves around this morning, a few anxious people in the dressing room but that’s natural," Woakes said.

"I just got my length wrong for the first ball. A world-class player in David Warner is going to put that away. But I got my length right after that and felt good."

England have lost all three of their previous World Cup finals, against Pakistan in 1992, Australia in 1987 and the West Indies in 1979.

Asked how it felt to help take England to within touching distance of their first World Cup crown, Woakes said his team had tried their best to block out the potentially historic nature of their campaign.

"We have tried not to think about getting to the final, it hasn’t sunk in yet," he said.

He added: "We were tipped as favourites so it was important to get to the semi-final in the first place and then to win this in this fashion against this Australia side on the best ground in the world is amazing."

Australia  outplayed  by England in World Cup semi, says Finch

Australia captain Aaron Finch admitted his side were "outplayed" by England after the World Cup holders saw their reign ended in a semi-final thumping on Thursday.

Despite winning the toss and batting first, Finch’s team were humbled as they collapsed to 223 all out before allowing England to sweep to victory in just 32.1 overs.

Losing to their arch-rivals in front of a gleeful Edgbaston crowd was a painful way for Australia to surrender the trophy they had won four times in the past five tournaments.

But Finch, who was out for a duck, conceded England had been far superior.

"We were totally outplayed today. We expected the new ball to seam a little but they bowled a great length, hitting the stumps a lot," Finch said.

"We had to have a lot things go right for us. We had to take our chances and bowl them out.

"We tried to take wickets but when you are aggressive with the ball and they are aggressive with the bat, things can happen very quickly."

England openers Jason Roy, who hit 85 from 65 balls, and Jonny Bairstow, who made 34, took the game away from Australia with a superb 124-run partnership for the first wicket.

"They played exceptionally well. We know how dominant they are when they get on top. You’ve got a very good cricket team in England," Finch said.

Although Australia had beaten England easily in the group stage at Lord’s, they were a shadow of the team that eased into the semi-finals with seven wins from nine matches.

For just the second time in the past seven World Cups, Australia have failed to make the final, but Finch said he was proud of his team’s efforts 12 months after they were crushed 5-0 by England in a one-day international series.

"We have a lot of positives from the campaign. We’ve come a long way from when we were in England a year ago," he said.

"We came here thinking we could win the tournament. We’ve had backs to the wall and character shown and I’m proud of how the group have progressed but it still hurts."

England and New Zealand will face on 13th July at Lord‘s to lift the World Cup first time for their respective teams.

England v Australia: World Cup talking points

Eoin Morgan’s England humbled defending champions Australia by eight wickets in a lopsided World Cup semi-final at Edgbaston on Thursday.

Chasing 224 for victory, the hosts romped home in 32.1 overs, with opening batsman Jason Roy scoring a dominant 85.

Three things we learned from the match:

Roy raises the roof

Jason Roy took the spotlight away from his in-form opening partner Jonny Bairstow, pummelling the Australian attack to seize the initiative.

Roy has made a huge difference since returning from a hamstring injury that forced him to miss three league games, hitting his third successive half-century.

He was watchful at the start of his innings but changed gear by hitting Mitchell Starc for a four past mid-off in the fourth over.

Sparing nobody, he took a particular liking to Steve Smith’s leg-spin, hammering the part-time bowler for three towering sixes in successive balls.

Roy smashed nine fours and five sixes during his 85-run blitz off 65 balls and was an angry man when given caught behind of Pat Cummins by umpire Kumar Dharmasena.

A dissenting Roy grudgingly walked back to the pavilion but by then the batsman had all but guaranteed England’s place in their first World Cup final since 1992.

Woakes-Jofra hunt in a pair

Chris Woakes and Jofra Archer underlined their status as England’s feared new-ball pair, destroying Australia’s top order with swing and seam.

The Barbados-born Jofra has lived up to the hype surrounding his England call-up, taking 19 wickets in 10 World Cup games.

He struck with his first ball in Birmingham, trapping Australia skipper Aaron Finch lbw for a golden duck and later hit Alex Carey on the chin and drew blood.

Warwickshire quick Woakes was also breathing fire on his home ground, beginning with a ferocious opening spell that saw the back of David Warner and Peter Handscomb.

Man-of-the match Woakes ended with figures of 3-20 and Jofra took 2-32 as England took a firm grip on the match which they never relinquished.

Smith stands the test

Steve Smith has been unfazed by the hostile reception he has received from English crowds after he returned from a ball-tampering ban and once again he took the boos in his stride at Edgbaston.

The former captain led an Australia fightback from the wreckage of 14-3 in the seventh over.

The 30-year-old Smith dug deep in his effort to rescue the Australia innings, putting on 103 runs for the fourth wicket with Alex Carey.

Smith brought up his fourth fifty in 10 innings but had little support from the other end after the fall of Carey.

But his 379 runs at the World Cup prove he has not lost his hunger after the cheating row last year interrupted his flourishing career.

Squads

England: Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (capt), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (wk), Chris Woakes, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood

Australia: Aaron Finch (capt), David Warner, Steven Smith, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Jason Behrendorff 

Related Topics
Cricket