England batsman sends Australia crashing out
All-rounder hits unbeaten century to seal victory England to face Pakistan or Sri Lanka in semi-finals
At the end of a wonderfully vivid game, in which both countries attacked or counterattacked without any attempt at defensiveness in between, England headed into the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy unbeaten and Australia headed home.
It was not just a cricket match either but a highly charged occasion, as only a fixture between England and Australia at Edgbaston can be. Nowhere in this sport can match the old Hollies Stand for banter and bonhomie, for ridiculing misfields by opponents yet witty with it, and, with the aid of this 12th man, Eoin Morgan and Ben Stokes took England most of the way home by scoring 159 off 158 balls.
There have been many higher stands for England numerically, but scarcely any in terms of quality. This was a highoctane Australian pace attack, backed by a leg-spinner new to England in Adam Zampa, yet Morgan and Stokes touched the heights as they were so calm in shot-selection and defence yet hitting every bad ball either to or over the boundary.
Morgan, in addition to catching a devilish skier with the same calmness, batted like a captain who will brook no opposition to his team’s desire to win a global one-day tournament for the first time.
Often he has clubbed bowling but surely not of this quality. Of his five sixes, the one when he ran down the pitch and swiped Josh Hazlewood far over midwicket, was the breathtaker.
Stokes was more orthodox but no less superlative. At the rate he is improving, it must be within his compass to become the finest left-handed batsman England have had – if such a generalisation can encompass all formats. He pummelled two sixes in his third one-day international century but perhaps the pick of his shots were two straightish drives off Pat Cummins. In all, England hit eight sixes to Australia’s one – where, until two years ago, it would normally have been the other way round.
England, in recording their third successive victory in this tournament, were also cheered on in Dhaka and Chittagong.
By eliminating Australia, England allowed Bangladesh to keep second place in their group and thereby qualify for the second semi-final at Edgbaston against either India or South Africa. In the first semi, at Cardiff on Wednesday, England will meet the winner of tomorrow’s match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
So at least it will be from a position of strength that England’s captain and coaches can decide the immediate future of Jason Roy, who took a most skilful outfield catch, crossing the boundary line then tossing the ball back, before being dismissed second ball.
England have one Achilles heel – they have patched up the second, which was the loss of Chris Woakes – and that is the brittleness of their opening pair on high-pressure occasions against world-class bowling. It is not that Roy has scored only 51 runs in his last eight innings so much as the manner of his dismissals, and his reaction to them: either a frustrated swish in Cardiff, or a desperate plea for a review here, without consulting his partner.
If England’s batting is now all dash and daring, nothing has changed their antiquated style of bowling at the last World Cup so much as the introduction of two wicket-takers in Adil Rashid and Mark Wood. Fortunately for England, Rashid’s omission for the first qualifier against Bangladesh at the Kia Oval did not affect the result. It might even have stimulated Rashid because he has not bowled better for England than he did here, so alluring his loop, and none of those drag-downs, which were the result of nerves.
Or it might just have been the overnight news that Afghanistan’s leg-spinner, Rashid Khan, had taken seven for 18 against West Indies in the first game of their current ODI series. Only three better analyses have ever been recorded in this format – and one against Zimbabwe, another against Namibia. England’s leg-spinner, in any event, proved that he is still the best wristspinning Rashid in world cricket by taking his four wickets and not conceding a single boundary. Morgan deployed Wood in three spells: five overs, one for 20; two overs, one for six; and three overs, two for seven. Every spell, in other words, was a lethal injection of pace. His first victim was David Warner when Wood seamed one away from the left-hander. His second was even more significant, Australia’s captain himself, although an element of batsman-error was involved when Steve Smith, chest on, pushed to mid-off. Yet none of these injections finished off Australia. Their batsmen kept going fearlessly, as they have long done and as England’s have done for only two years.
Even when Australia lost five wickets – all to Rashid and Wood – for 15 runs, they still kept going, driven by Travis Head, a bottom-hander who loves to pull, as England discovered when he propelled Australia from the rubble of 254 for nine to the respectability of 277.
Head should have been caught in the last over by Liam Plunkett at long off – it was Plunkett’s second drop of the game, and the less forgivable – then added six more runs before departing unbeaten.
Emboldened after their Head’s up, Australia’s new-ball pair tore into England’s top order. Mitchell Starc and Hazlewood epitomise the quality that distinguishes between batsmen and hitters, between Test techniques and lesser ones – although Joe Root was swept aside as well as Roy and Alex Hales.
Hazlewood does not quite have Glenn McGrath’s height, but he possesses the same unrelenting accuracy and is a touch quicker. In this dark hour of 35 for three was born the stand between Morgan and Stokes.
Morgan, scarcely waiting to mount his charger and pull down his visor, launched the counter-attack by drilling the first two balls after a rain break, from Starc, through the covers. When Hazlewood tried two bouncers, Morgan swivelled and pulled them both for six with his lance.
When Glenn Maxwell tried some offbreaks, they disappeared for another brace. But Stokes was better still, apart from running out his captain, and was the man of this match.