Plunkett is primed to knock out Australia
T HE only blow he will strike this time, David Warner insists, will be psychological but there is no doubt a more physical clash will be remembered when England take on Australia at Edgbaston in a Champions Trophy rematch on Saturday.
It was in a Birmingham bar four years ago that Warner punched a young Joe Root after Australia suffered a 48-run trophy defeat and set in motion a chain of events that ended that summer with an emphatic England Ashes success.
Relations were hardly helped two years ago when Warner blamed Root’s ‘inappropriate behaviour’ in fooling around with a fake beard for the incident and also aimed a swipe at Steven Finn, saying he saw him ‘sleeping in a gutter’.
Warner and Root reached something of a truce when they were photographed together at the end of the last Ashes but the affair can only add spice to Saturday’s latest Birmingham meeting of the old enemies.
England are in the delicious position of knowing they will top their group whatever happens following victory over New Zealand and can eliminate Australia with a repeat of their 2013 Edgbaston victory.
Not that England can afford to relax as an Australia win would see them join England in the last four and have the opportunity to come back and bite Eoin Morgan’s team in a potential final at The Oval on June 18.
Then, of course, there is the edge that victory will bring with another Ashes series around the corner.
‘You look at their team and they bat all the way down to 11 and have great bowling,’ Warner told All Out Cricket.
‘The psychological blow will be fantastic if we can get the upper hand on them because we know they’re a team to beat.’
England certainly looked the team to beat in the way they overcame the loss of one of their most important bowlers in Chris Woakes to defeat the side that inspired them at the last World Cup in New Zealand at Cardiff.
Central to that was their weakened attack after England’s batsmen had fallen ten or 20 runs short of par when neither Root nor Alex Hales could convert half centuries into three figures and Jos Buttler was left stranded on 61.
Not too long ago Trevor Bayliss reckoned Liam Plunkett did not do enough with the ball to merit a regular place but this old bowling dog, at 32, has learnt new tricks and has finally become an integral member of the attack.
It was Plunkett who emulated Stuart Broad’s ability to extract uneven bounce at Cardiff with cross-seam deliveries and showed he packs a punch too by hitting both Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor on the helmet.
If Plunkett was the most successful bowler against New Zealand with four wickets then England will take even more satisfaction from Jake Ball’s performance after trusting him to take the new ball in Woakes’ absence.
Now England know what is at stake in what is anything but a dead final group game for them before they head back to Wales for their semi-final next Wednesday, probably against South Africa or India.