ASHES REVISITED!

England face two must-win games after Aussie thrashing

THIS was all too like the Ashes — Australia proving far too dominant for a meek and mild England white-ball team who appear to have lost the mojo that saw them win the one-day series here so emphatically.

A third consecutive victory for Australia in this Twenty20 tri-series, the first against New Zealand and the last two against England, takes them to the final and leaves the other two facing a mighty scrap. Bafflingly, England’s white-ball revolution has not spread as effectively over 20 overs as it has in the 50-over game — ever since Carlos Brathwaite ripped the World Twenty20 title out of their grasp in India two years ago.

This was certainly a one-sided affair with none of the controversy over Jason Roy’s catch that was to reprieve match-winner Glenn Maxwell and went a long way to deciding the first match between these old enemies in Hobart. Any chance England had of providing an exciting finale to the Australia leg of their winter evaporated when they stuttered to a well-below-par 137 for seven in the face of a fine fielding display from David Warner’s Australia.

Maxwell was at it again here, making his absence from the one-day series seem all the more strange with 39 in a partnership of 65 with D’Arcy Short.

The end came embarrassingly quickly when Aaron Finch hit David Willey for consecutive sixes with 33 balls to spare. It left England with much to contemplate as they make their way across the Tasman Sea today to start their second tour of this gruelling winter.

‘We were determined after Hobart to show exactly what we were capable of but we didn’t soak up the early pressure,’ said Jos Buttler, standing in as captain for the injured Eoin Morgan. ‘The plan after losing early wickets was to back it up and go well at the end but I never got going and we were never able to get up to a score we felt would be defendable.’

Now England will need to win both their matches against New Zealand — in Wellington on Tuesday and Hamilton next Sunday — to be sure of a place in the final by the time Ben Stokes makes his expected return to the squad late next week.

England’s night got off to a bad start when captain Morgan was forced to pull out with a groin injury. ‘He got a little niggle in training and we don’t know the extent of it yet,’ said Buttler.

There was a curious timidity about an England side who could not throw off the shackles imposed on them throughout.

Their innings was epitomised by Morgan’s replacement, James Vince, who struggled for rhythm and ran terribly in his first competitive England match since the final Test in Sydney — put out of his misery after an ugly 21.

Once England had lost three wickets in the first four overs — Dawid Malan run out by a quite brilliant direct hit from stand-in captain Warner at mid-off — they were always playing catch up — against a disciplined Australian attack.Even Buttler was subdued while top — scoring with 46, going at less than a run a ball before he holed out off the final delivery.

The most fluent batting came from Sam Billings, something of a nearly man in this England side, who hit 29 off 23 balls including one outrageous, left-handed pull for four off Andrew Tye. In the reply, Willey struck in the first over to extend Warner’s lean spell but Chris Lynn smashed two sixes in his 19-ball 31 and Short and Maxwell made quick work of an attack which was surprisingly without quickest bowler Mark Wood.