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Australia will hope to live up to their favourites billing when they take on England in their first game of the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup. Follow the live blog of this match from the Melbourne Cricket Ground from 2.30pm AEDT.
It’s no surprise Australia start favourites against old rivals England. The statistics point to a telling chasm between the two teams in this format of the game.
In the last 15 matches played in Australia, the hosts have won 13 of them. At the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia are 9-2 from their previous 11 games. England have won just 3 of their previous 11 matches here.
That’s to say nothing of the ruthlessness Australia exhibited in demolishing England in the three matches the two sides played during the tri-series.
In their opener in that tournament, Australia chased down England’s target with more than 10 overs to spare, Eoin Morgan’s century going in vain.
England pushed Australia hard the second time they met but a clinical century from the broad bat of Steven Smith ensured the hosts were comfortable throughout the chase.
The third strike came in the final of that competition, when Australia batted first and fell short of the much-coveted 300-run mark. Then a fresh and fired-up Mitchell Johnson tore through the English batting to guide his side to a facile victory – that game was over very early during the English chase.
England need their batting to fire to have any chance of an upset. With an Aussie batting line-up in the form of its life as a unit, the hosts will chase down any sub-standard total. England’s only hope is to pile on something substantial and then try and use their bowlers to exploit the bounce at the MCG to test out the Australian batsmen.
There are a couple of improvement areas for the English batting. Ravi Bopara’s poor run is an obvious one and while Eoin Morgan refused to name his starting XI a day before the game, there are suggestions Bopara’s place will be taken by Gary Ballance. Given Moeen Ali is regularly bowling his entire quota of 10 and Bopara’s batting form issues are refusing to go away, this makes for a sensible move.
The other is the batting of Moeen himself. He is a useful cricketer who will score his 20s and 30s and bowl most of his 10 overs but he needs to convert his starts as most top openers do. So far, he has thrown his wicket away and in turn put pressure on the middle-order.
Australia’s line-up is more or less settled, with the only question being over the third bowler’s spot behind Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc. Josh Hazlewood seems a favourite to take the place, but there’s Pat Cummins and Xavier Doherty fighting to make the XI as well.
Again, George Bailey refused to reveal the XI but if the pitch at the G has any bounce and carry, Doherty would have to sit out, and Hazlewood could just nudge out Cummins.
You can follow the live score and blog of this Australia vs England World Cup 2015 encounter from 2.30pm (AEDT). Be sure to post your comments below.
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