England falter once again in the World Cup against Aussies

Say what you will about how strong and how dynamic this England team is, which is why they are the number one ranked ODI team in the world, but there is no running away from the fact that they can’t seem to do well in World Cups.

Especially, when the team is Australia, whom they have last defeated in the 1992 World Cup and since then the Aussies have gone on to win four more World Cups. 

And it was the same at Lord’s, the home of cricket, on Tuesday as England suffered a 64-run defeat against their arch-nemesis, in what could be a prelude to the Ashes which starts in August.
The main heroes for the Aussies were their captain Aaron Finch, who scored yet another century, his second this tournament to set up a decent 285/7 total, while left-arm fast bowlers Mitchell Starc and Jason Behrendorff took nine wickets between them to complete the win.

1st Innings

After winning the toss and being put on to bat by England captain Eoin Morgan, the Australian openers David Warner and Aaron Finch once again got off to a solid start.

They put up a 123-run partnership as both players reached their fifties before Warner was out for 53 in the 23rd over, caught by Joe Root off the bowling of Moeen Ali.

Usman Khawaja and Finch then started to form another good partnership before Ben Stokes had Khawaja bowled with a fast full-length deliver for 23.

Finch held his end up and reached his century in the 36th over before Jofra Archer had his wicket and Australia were 185/3. 

Glenn Maxwell then tried to up the scoring rate but was also gone before doing much damage, scoring just 12.

To make maters worse, Steve Smith and the big-hitting Marus Stoinis had a horrible mix-up and Stoinis was run-out for just eight.

Smith was the next to be out with the score on 250 and less than five overs to go as he scored 38, 

Wicket-keeper Alex Carey and Smith then finally got things going, especially Carey who stayed not out till the end on 38 off 27 balls to guide his team to a challenging total.   

2nd Innings

Starc and Behrendorff bowled with pace and fire as they rattled a strong English top order with yorkers. 

As a result James Vince was out first, for a duck, the in-form Joe Root was out for eight, and captain Eoin Morgan was out for four as England were 26/3 in the sixth over.

Jonny Bairstow played a few decent shots but he was out to a Behrendorff bouncer for 27 as England fell further at 53/4. 

With the pacers finally gone, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler got things going in a 71-run partnership to bring the hosts back in the chase.

It took one of the catches of the tournament by Khawaja, on the boundary, to bring an end to Buttler’s innings as England were 124/5 in the 28th over.

Stokes then partnered up with Chris Woakes and they formed a nice 53-run partnership to keep England in the contest.

But then Starc was brought back, and he delivered one of the best balls of the tournament, a fast in-swinging yorker to dismiss Ben Stokes for 89 and with it, England’s chances of a victory.

The pace duo then got rid of the lower-middle order and the English tail without much fuss as Behrendorff took his first five-for in ODI’s and Starc took four.

Points Table

The defending champions once again climb back to top spot after this win with 12 points and they have all but confirmed a spot in the semi-finals. 

As for England, they remain on eight points at fourth place by a thread with just two games remaining against in-form India and New Zealand.

Bangladesh are now breathing down their neck at fifth spot with seven points while Sri Lanka and Pakistan are at sixth spot with six points and seventh spot with five points respectively.

All three teams have a chance to make the semis if they can win all their games.

Key Stats   

• Mitchell Starc now has 41 wickets in World Cups placing him eighth in the all-time wicket-takers’ list. What’s most impressive is that he’s taken just 15 games to take these wickets and has the best average - 13.92  - among bowlers with 40-plus wickets. 

• Starc also has 19 wickets and is top of the wicket-takers’ list this tournament. The all-time highest wickets taken in a single edition of the World Cup is by Glenn McGrath, who took 26 wickets in the 2007 edition of the World Cup in the West Indies.

• David Warner now leads the list of most runs scored this World Cup with 500 Runs, followed closely by Aaron Finch at second spot on 496 runs. Sachin Tendulkar leads the list of most runs scored in a single edition of the World Cup with 673 runs, but at the rate these two players are going, that record might be overtaken