Australia squandered dominant positions with bat and then ball as they were dumped out of the Champions Trophy by England last night.
England will enter the semi-finals bulging with confidence after an impressive all-round performance, their finest of the tournament so far.
Australia, meanwhile, will head home from what has been a strange campaign for them, with two washouts followed by a wildly up-and-down effort yesterday.
First Australia threw away a rollicking start with the bat, slumping from 1-136 to be 277 all out, then they bulldozed England’s top order but failed to capitalise after having them 3-35.
A wonderfully incisive new ball spell from Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc left England in tatters.
Starc trapped Jason Roy in front to continue the English opener’s form trough. Then Hazlewood did what he so regularly does early in an ODI innings, getting top order batsmen to edge to slips. First it was Alex Hales then Joe Root who fed the cordon.
Soon after, rain intervened, as it has done all too often this tournament. When England returned to the crease they brought with them a fierce intensity.
Ignoring the perilous state of their innings, English skipper Eoin Morgan set about throwing the bat at almost every delivery he faced.
Morgan was so intent on unsettling the Aussies he even charged Josh Hazlewood and slapped him down the ground for four.
It was a risky batting strategy but one which paid off handsomely. Within a matter of overs the momentum of the game shifted. Australia went from dominating to being under pressure.
Timing the ball beautifully, Morgan repeatedly pierced the off side with a sequence of drives. Then, after a sedate start to his innings, Stokes began to unfurl his full range of strokes.
In the face of this ceaseless aggression, Australia’s bowlers lost their direction. Rather than being patient, they tried too hard to produce wicket taking deliveries. Boundaries duly followed with Morgan and Stokes tearing the Australian attack to shreds.
Smith again displayed his curious lack of confidence in Adam Zampa, using both Travis Head and Moises Henriques before the specialist spinner. By the time Zampa came on Stokes and Morgan were running rampant.
Earlier, Australia wasted a fantastic start to their innings. At 1-136 after 22.4 overs, with Smith and Finch cruising, Australia looked capable of making a monster score of 350-plus.
The English TV commentators were criticising the home team for looking listless in the field and their bowling, to that point, had been wayward and lacking in penetration.
Then Australia brought England back into the match via the awfully-weak dismissals of Finch, Smith and Moises Henriques. Finch had started his innings in scratchy touch, too often looking to smash the ball to pieces, before finding some nice rhythm once he placed trust in his timing.
Then, out of nowhere, he tried to manufacture a lofted drive from a decent delivery from Ben Stokes and skied the ball for an easy catch. It was a terribly unnecessary stroke given the English all-rounder had regularly been serving up boundary balls, conceding 0-35 from 4.4 overs up until then.
Finch’s impatient hoick brought to the crease much-maligned all-rounder Moises Henriques, who was averaging eight with the bat from his first 10 ODIs. Henriques looked in nice touch, nailing a square drive and hammering a pull shot for successive boundaries off Stokes.
On 17 from 17 deliveries, Henriques appeared as though he may just play his first valuable knock for Australia. Then he ill-advisedly copied Finch and tried to bludgeon a boundary from a reasonable delivery.
Henriques was beaten in the flight by English leggie Adil Rashid, who bowled wonderfully well, and lobbed the ball to mid-on.
The quick wickets of Finch and Henriques placed great responsibility on the blade of Smith. The Australian skipper had played a patient innings notable for the way in which he had protected his wicket, despite not being in fluent form.
This was what made it so jarring when Smith donated his wicket to Mark Wood, spooning a gentle half volley straight to mid-off. This collapse of 3-45 left Australia to lower their gaze from a total of 350 to something closer to the 300 mark.
Some fine bowling by Wood and Rashid further dented Australia’s ambitions and in the end they were a tad lucky just to scrap to 277. Amid the stuttering second half of their innings, Australia were guided by blossoming all-rounder Travis Head.
The 23-year-old showed fantastic composure during his unbeaten knock of 71 from 64 balls. This continued his stunning ODI form, which has seen him make 545 runs at 61 over the past six months.
Just as poor as Smith’s use of Zampa has been his decision to bat Henriques at four ahead of Head and Maxwell.
Henriques is unlikely to be seen again in ODIs for some time after flopping again. This tournament has underlined that Australia looked unbalanced with three all-rounders in their top six.
As they now switch their sights to the 2019 World Cup, addressing that issue should be a priority.
Don Freo
Guest
That's 66% correct. Behrendorff and Marsh would have brought home the Champions Trophy.
DingoGray
Roar Guru
Not one mention of the absolute diatribe performance trotted out by our Wicket keeper? His shot to get out was nothing short of deplorable, and then the catch he dropped down the legside being a show boat going one hand that didn't even need to be extended..... Dare say a decent keeper would of caught that on the inside of his hip........ I wouldn't of given Steve Smith's captaincy much of a tick either.
James
Guest
Henriques, Behrendorff and Shaun Marsh should go to Champions Trophy Ronan O'Connell Columnist By Ronan O'Connell, 18 Apr 2017 Ronan O'Connell is a Roar Expert oops
James
Guest
Its not that pedantry, the difference between a 22 and a 25 year old in the sporting realm is usually pretty big. A 22 year old you can excuse youth or inexperience but a 25 year old should be good enough.
Stuckbetweenindopak
Roar Rookie
Although i have personally nothing against indian cricket, i know they have a very good side who work extremly hard, and administration that invests a lot of money in cricket, but still many people wonder how team india gets perfectly lucky when it matters, things fall for them in a very perfect manner, often the best player from opposition team gets injured in nets or banned just before the game, and often when you think oppostion starts to get momentum, there is rain stoppage and when it resumes they collapse like pack of cards, and when their bowlers struggle with set oppostion batsman on the crease doing so well but the moment he takes a risky extra run the throw is right on the top of stumps in dhoni's hands.
Stuckbetweenindopak
Roar Rookie
Firstly i myself dont believe in such things easily and would take a lot for me to get convinced about such things. Secondly, the nature of the subject is such that no news site, google or even personal bloggers would dare to claims such things fearing embarrassment and backlash from fans. So why i still post this the reason is, as i said it would take a lot to convince me but i think i have started considering such things and i feel that the validity of such claims cannot be completely ruled out. I have heard these claims from time to time now since few years but recently i am hearing such things more frequently and even from some educated and rational people who seem to firmly believe in it. Watching yesterdays game and seeing some fans (saintly dressed), spelling something with closed eyes while "playing around" with something in their hands only helped me to post it here.
Cadfael
Roar Guru
I don't think there is too much wrong overall with Starc, Hazlwood and Cummins. Maxwell, Lynn, Wade and Head do not play or NSW. Remember, Smith declined to select the team after the last Ashes tour(?). So the errant selections fall on the selectors and Lehman. We went there with four recognised batsmen and of those Lynn didn't get a look in when it was obvious we needed to have a full complement. We should have played the top 4 plus Head at five and there is the batting lineup. Henriques and Maxwell were poor. Compare our lineup to England. SA and India who all went in with a full batting complement. We didn't deserve to advance to the semis. It all boils down to the selectors picking a bum side. Or were thety playing politicsto shopw who is running the game here.
Good Hippo
Guest
Smith should watch tapes of Steve Waugh to learn better body language. Arms crossed, with a pissed off demeanour at all times.
Good Hippo
Guest
remember the media before the first 2015 ashes in eng? when "starc and pattinson were going to blow the poms away" in the first test? When will they learn that accuracy and variations ala Bird and Siddle work best in slow england pitches
Cam from Brisbane
Guest
The teams through to the finals of the CT. England, Bangladesh and the Weather. Australia unluckly, probably would have won against New Zealand and Bangladesh. All 3 games affected. Lets be honest it is a bit of a nothing tournament. Little interest back here, crowds seem small. Meh.
Bfc
Guest
Por que...? Meanwhile Ussie is "catching a cold..". Don't even mention the fact that Lynne could get a game... Smith's apparent reluctance to use Zampa may be the result of the hype and hubris around the much vaunted pace attack...can't understand why he would use his "part-timers' before Zampa though...
James
Guest
And the winner for the most whiney excuse laden comment
Rellum
Roar Guru
They have also put back into grass roots something like $20mil of their own money because they are worried about the future of the game.
George
Guest
Smith and Lehmann value Wade's mouth.
Rellum
Roar Guru
If only, but I like your optimism.
Rellum
Roar Guru
It was also played a very long time ago, over a very short period of time, with development teams included. Form in that comp says very little.
qwetzen
Guest
Starc is a "great" bowler in the same way that Brett Lee is a "great" bowler. On paper. Specifically; The Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Tele, The Australian... Starc has averaged 30+ in his last three Test series and if you take out series against lowly Test sides his average would be comfortably worse than Brett Lees' 30. Have a look at CI; https://tinyurl.com/y72tx997
Savage
Roar Rookie
wth are you talking about.there’s no word “black magic” spreading in india.just checked google to confirmed it.and i am not going to respond to other part like “inexplicable dress code with strange object” cause its just staight up lie.
Savage
Roar Rookie
wth are you talking about.there's no word "black magic" spreading in india.just checked google to confirmed it.and i am not going to respond to other part like "inexplicable dress code with strange object" cause its just staight up bulls***.
Stuckbetweenindopak
Roar Rookie
Believe it or not, the word spreading around is "black magic", yes black magic. Many accounts say that in the big country called india a lot of magic and weird practices take place in temples etc on and before matchdays to help team india and harm opponent performances. Even in the ground itself we can see some fans in inexplicable dress code with strange objects in their hands.