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Australia’s horror tour of the mother country has finally ended with a meek 28-run loss in the only T20 of the series.
Jos Buttler’s strong knock of 61 off 30 balls saw England reach a modest total of 5/221 but, despite a superb innings from Aaron Finch (84 off 41), Australia were bowled out for 193 in reply with just two balls to go.
It was another of case of the middle order failing to fire for the Aussies, with Glenn Maxwell (10), Travis Head (15) and Alex Carey (3) all gone cheaply. Ashton Agar and Andrew Tye provided some resistance with scores of 20 or more each, but the run chase never really got going.
Adil Rashid was the danger man for England, going 3/27, while Chris Jordan also had three wickets. Australia’s attack was lead by Mitchell Swepson (2/37), while Marcus Stoinis chipped in with a wicket in his only over, but otherwise the bowling was toothless.
Australia will be gunning for an elusive win on their tour of England when the two sides face off in the final match of the tour – a T20 at Edgbaston. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 3:30am (AEST).
There’s a change in captain for Australia and that could be a big plus. Tim Paine went through a horrible run of batting form and as a result, Australia always knew they needed runs up front or suffer a late collapse.
In trying to avoid that, they settled in on a plan to bat reasonably cautiously at the top of the order and that’s where the powerful England batting line-up always took advantage in the chases. Unfortunately for Australia, it was not until the fifth ODI that they came close to winning a game but a confident England lower-order took them apart.
T20Is are a different beast and more so when one looks at the statistics between these two teams. Despite Australia having struggled in this format – they are yet to win a World Cup – the tourists are on a five-match winning streak that saw them clinch a tri-series back home. England was one of the teams.
Despite those five wins, Australia’s win-loss record in this format since 2013 is 18-19 but it’s not all rosy for England either. The 2010 World T20 champions and runner-up at the previous edition in India, England have won just 19 and lost 24 matches in this format since 2013.
Even the overall head-to-head is in favour of Australia, who have won nine and lost five to England while over the past five seasons, this is 6-2 in favour of Australia.
As far as the selection is concerned, Australia could welcome in a second spinner in the form of Mitchell Swepson along with Ashton Agar, while the top-order could consist of batsmen looking to go after the bowling from ball one – much like it had panned out during the summer’s tri-series along with New Zealand.
England have decided to open with Jos Buttler, who had been sent up during the Indian Premier League as well and hammered five fifties in a row. Where that leaves the likes of Jonny Bairstow, Jason Roy and Alex Hales remains to be seen.
Prediction
Australia’s good T20I form will help but England to edge them aside in a not very high-scoring encounter to win this game.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of this T20I in Birmingham from 3:30am (AEST) and don’t forget to drop a comment in the section below.
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