England fight back to edge out Aussies in T20 thriller

E n g l a n d f o u g h t b a c k impressively with the ball to beat Australia by t wo runs in a thrilling Twent y20 international at the Ageas Bowl to move one up in the three- match series.

Aaron Finch’s side looked set to chase down 163 when he was going well alongs i de David Warner, but Jofra Archer dismissed the opening duo and four wickets for only nine runs turned the tie around.

With 15 needed off the last over, Tom Curran restricted Australia to 12 and it made Dawid Malan’s 66 earlier in the day even more crucial.

The Yorkshire batsman helped rescue England’s cause after Jos Buttler had crunched 44 in rapid time before a collapse left them struggling on 108 for five.

Malan stuck around and reached fifty for the eighth time in his short T20 career to help his team post 162 for seven before Eoin Morgan’s bowlers recovered from a poor star t t o hold t heir nerve at the death.

Morgan had t urned t o Archer as his side struggled to make the breakthrough and the paceman delivered when Finch could not get enough on an uppish drive and found Chris Jordan at mid- off to exit for 46.

Warner succeeded where his fellow opener failed by going through to his 18th half- century in T20 internationals.

Steve Smith was at the other end now but fell for 18 after a top edge was well taken by Jonny Bairstow.

Adil Rashid claimed the wicket and finished with t wo f or 2 9 a f t e r Gle nn Maxwell crunched a drive straight to Morgan.

When Warner played on for 58 off Archer, Australia were reeling and the collapse continued as Mark Wood bowled Alex Carey in a spell where four wickets were taken in 14 balls at the expense of only nine runs.

The onus was on Marcus Stoinis and Ashton Agar to get the remaining 30 runs, but England had the upper h a n d a f t e r Jo r d a n r a n out Agar at the end of the penultimate over.

With 15 needed, Stoinis crunched Curran’s second ball for six, but the bowler held his nerve to secure victory by two runs.