Friday 19 / April / 2024
Manchester: Aaron Finch’s century, supplemented by nine wickets between Mitchell Starc and Jason Behrendorff, helped Australia to a 64-run win over England at Lord's on Tuesday, 25 June.
With this win, Australia became the first team to cement their semi-final spot in the 2019 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup. Jofra Archer and Chris Woakes had the ball nipping around in the morning after Eoin Morgan elected to field, but David Warner and Aaron Finch battled through to their third 100-plus partnership in the tournament to give Australia a strong base.
Warner perished to Moeen Ali after reaching another half-century in the tournament. Finch remained ticking, going on to bring up his 15th ODI century from 115 balls in the 36th over.
The Australia skipper departed the very next ball after reaching the landmark, top-edging a hook shot off Archer to the safe hands of Woakes. From there England’s bowlers fought back with regular breakthroughs, and some key errors from the Australians – the run-out of Marcus Stoinis a strong exemplar – saw aims of reaching a 300-plus score diminish.
A cameo of 38 from 27 balls from Alex Carey offered a bit of respite as Australia finished on 285/7. England’s chase was rocked early on as Behrendorff bowled James Vince for a second-ball duck. Things went from bad to worse for the English, with the in-form Joe Root pinned on his pads by Mitchell Starc, before Eoin Morgan and Jonny Bairstow followed to leave England 53/4.
Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes rebuilt with a 71-run stand before an excellent running catch on the boundary by Usman Khawaja ended the stay of the England wicketkeeper. Stokes and Woakes lifted the mood of the Lord’s crowd with another productive partnership but Starc then interrupted the English charge with a searing yorker to remove England's No.5 batsman, and from there Australia took complete control over the match, Behrendorff leading the way with figures of 5/44.
