England knock Aussies out, Bangladesh qualify
Ben Stokes hit a career-best 102 not out and captain Eoin Morgan 87 as England knocked Australia out of the Champions Trophy with a 40-run win over their arch-rivals at Edgbaston on Saturday.
England collapsed to 35 for three chasing 278 for victory before left-handers Morgan and Stokes changed the course of the game with a fourth-wicket partnership of 159.
Stokes’s third one-day international century was his highest score at this level after the allrounder had twice made 101.
When a second downpour ended the match with England 240 for four off 40.2 overs, the hosts were well ahead of the 205 they needed for a win under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method for rain-affected limited overs matches.
World Cup champions Australia had to win this match to join already-qualified England in the semi-finals of a tournament featuring the world’s leading eight ODI teams after no result washouts in their previous two Group A fixtures.
But this defeat saw Bangladesh, who beat New Zealand by five wickets in Cardiff on Friday, into the last four instead.
Earlier, Mark Wood and Adil Rashid both took four wickets as Australia were held to 277 for nine after losing the toss.
Durham fast bowler Wood returned his best ODI figures of four for 33 in his maximum 10 overs, while leg-spinner Rashid’s haul of four for 41 was his best against a Test nation at this level.
Travis Head’s unbeaten 71 kept Australia in the game after earlier fifties from opener Aaron Finch (68) and captain Steve Smith (56).
Australia lost five five wickets for 15 runs in 26 deliveries after Glenn Maxwell’s exit left them 239 for five in the 43rd over.
Both left-hander David Warner and opening partner Finch were in good touch after England captain Eoin Morgan won the toss.
But just as Warner (21) was getting into top gear he was caught behind off Wood.
Finch went on to complete a 47-ball fifty including seven fours. But having made 68, his best ODI score in over a year, Finch skyed a drive off Ben Stokes and Morgan, running back and across from short extracover held a difficult catch.
Moises Henriques (17) was deceived by Rashid into mistiming a drive straight to
Liam Plunkett at mid-off.
Smith completed a 68-ball fifty, including five fours, with a sweetlytimed off-drive against Plunkett. However, the star batsman, perhaps expecting a quicker delivery, obligingly chipped Wood’s first ball back to Plunkett at mid-off. Maxwell, dropped on 20, had failed to add to his score when he pulled Wood only for Jason Roy, going back and across the boundary marker, to complete a well-judged catch. Rashid then took centre stage, with three wickets for six runs in 10 balls. He caught and bowled both Matthew Wade and Pat Cummins, with Mitchell Starc falling for a duck in between when caught by the spinner’s Yorkshire colleague Joe Root.
The last over saw left-hander Head hit a six and a four off Stokes either side of being dropped by Plunkett, running in from the deep.