HIT’S COMING HOME

Brilliant England are in the final after eight-wicket destruction of the old enemy

EOIN MORGAN says England’s World Cup heroes can make cricket cool again – thanks to their first final in 27 years being broadcast on free-to-air TV. Following the semi-final walloping of Australia at Edgbaston, Channel 4 have struck a deal with Sky to show Sunday’s final against New Zealand live as England attempt to win a first World Cup.

It is the first time since their victorious Ashes campaign in 2005 that England will be shown live on terrestrial television.

“It is very cool,” said Morgan (above, with Joe Root), who hit the winning runs against the hapless Aussies. “Particularly given the 2005 Ashes for me was when cricket became cool. Throughout the summer, the

THERE is a World Cup to be won first, let’s get that out of the way.

But, as Steve Smith watched his parttime bowling disappear into another postcode, it was hard not to throw the odd delicious thought forward to the Ashes.

Never mind Justin Langer getting his men to walk barefooted on the Edgbaston outfield, the Australians were stripped bare here.

Yes, Test cricket is an entirely different ball game, but this was still a marker of sorts.

Smith was actually one of the few Aussies to trudge off with any credit, having contributed 85 to a total of 223.

But even his dismissal was a thing of splendid humiliation, Jos Buttler’s throw actually nutmegging Smith en route to running him out.

And when Smith turned his arm over, Jason Roy announced his contempt with three sixes on the spin.

The jeering of Smith and David Warner turned to deafening hilarity.

When the Ashes begins at the start of next month, the personnel will be different on both sides.

But there will be plenty of this English team who will duel with the old enemy over five Tests and have nothing to fear.

Look – as the Australians are fond of starting a sentence – we are talking apples and pears and Australia turned England over emphatically in the group stage.

Australia also hold the Ashes after thumping England on home soil in 2017/18.

But, should Eoin Morgan’s side go on and win the World Cup on Sunday, the positive energy that Langer was trying to draw from the Birmingham earth will be with English cricket, even under a different skipper. And the positivity is set by the likes of Roy. If there had been any lingering debate over the identity of at least one English opener for the Ashes, it is surely over now.

As an exercise in controlled brutality, this 65-ball 85 was a masterclass – only cut short by the worst umpiring decision of the tournament.

Mitchell Starc was the man who had, apparently, driven fear into Morgan.

But, save for one blow to Roy’s solar plexus, England’s openers and, indeed, Joe Root and the skipper played him with near-nonchalance.

Starc, 90mph-plus or not, went for 70 runs from his nine overs.

And when Australia’s premier spinner Nathan Lyon was introduced, Roy greeted him with a maximum back over his head.

This was an England batting line-up not just out to defeat Australia, but to demoralise them, if only for a day or two.

The pain felt by comedy villains Warner and Smith would have been real.

But not quite as real as the pain felt by Alex Carey, after Jofra Archer left him bloodied by a bouncer to the chin, before casually sauntering to the boundary for a drink.

As England try to make history against New Zealand at Lord’s on Sunday, Australia will regroup and begin their preparation for the contest they most like to win.

They will insist this will have no bearing on its outcome.

Probably not. But when those involved in this pasting walk out on the same ground for the first ball of the first Ashes Test, only one side will have special memories to inspire them.