Travis Head illuminated a chilly, dank evening in Southampton, crashing a record-breaking half-century to ignite some fireworks in Australia’s 28-run opening T20 international win over England.
The see-it-hit-it opener blasted the fastest ever T20I half-century by an Australian batter off just 19 balls, eventually going on to 59 off 23 after the visitors had been put in by stand-in England captain Phil Salt.
But the pyrotechnics ended up turning into a bit of a damp squib on Wednesday evening as England hit back strongly, first through fine bowling from leggies Adil Rashid and Liam Livingstone and then terrific yorker-bowling from Jofra Archer and Saqib Mahmood, with Australia having to settle for 179 all out after 19.3 overs.
When it came time for the home team to bat, the English hitters got off to several starts but no one got going as they slumped to 4-52 then 7-113 by the 14th over to be bowled out for 151.
Sean Abbott removed captain Phil Salt at the top of the order on the way to finishing with 3-28 with Josh Hazlewood (2-32) and Adam Zampa (2-20) providing fine support in a superb all-round bowling performance from the Aussies.
Head hammered England’s attack to all parts of the Rose Bowl as he amassed 86 off the powerplay along with Matt Short, a surprise choice as his opening partner while exciting prospect Jake Fraser-McGurk was dropped.
But once he was out on the final ball of the sixth over, Australia lost momentum and wickets just as quickly, with only Short’s 41 off 26 balls and Josh Inglis’s valuable 37 off 27 getting them to a decent target when a score of 200-plus had looked on the cards.
Adam Zampa of Australia is congratulated by his captain Mitchell Marsh. (Photo by Andy Kearns/Getty Images)
After a quietish start in the face of some swift stuff from Archer, Head, the world’s No.1-ranked T20 batter, murdered Sam Curran’s first over, smashing the left-armer for 30 runs – 4,4,6,6,6 and 4.
Head then swatted his next ball from Mahmood into the stands at deep backward square leg to reach his 50 – also the fastest ever scored against England in a T20I, and got away with a couple more fluky boundaries before attempting one monster hit too many and skying it to deep square leg.
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The 22-year-old Fraser-McGurk paid the price for scoring just 16, including two ducks, in his three knocks during the series win over Scotland and Short, who’s just become a father, celebrated his unexpected recall with an impressive knock which included two successive sixes off Reece Topley in just the second over.
Rashid (1-23 off four overs) and Livingstone (3-22 off three), who trapped Marcus Stoinis (10) and Tim David (golden duck) lbw in successive balls, started England’s impressive repair job.
Then Mahmood (2-21) and Archer (2-31) also both dismissed batters in successive balls with some toe-tapping music as Australia collapsed, losing their last four wickets in the space of 10 deliveries.
Salt was caught off the first ball of England’s reply, only to be reprieved by Xavier Bartlett having over-stepped.
But after the hosts had moved ominously to 1-40 in the fifth over, David made up for his golden duck with an astonishing running catch at deep mid-on at full stretch off Bartlett to get rid of debutant Jordan Cox.
Zampa, described by former captain Ricky Ponting as Australia’s most important player, was brilliant again eith his miserly flat legspin, taking 2-20 off his four overs to stifle the England innings.
Hazlewood, recovered from a calf injury, took the key wicket of Livingstone, bowling him off an inside edge when the big-hitting allrounder had moved dangerously to 37 off 27 balls.
with AAP
The Roarhttps://https://ift.tt/fEJdue3 Head start for Aussies as Travis smashes record-breaking knock to tear England apart
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