On Wednesday, 11th September 2024, the England vs Australia T20I was held at the Utilita Bowl in Southampton. This was the first T20 international of the three-match series.
Australia took a comprehensive 28-run victory over England. Australia’s winning score was 179 runs in 19.3 overs while England could only manage 151 runs from 19.2 overs.
This was Australia’s fourth consecutive T20I victory after defeating Scotland by 3-0 in Edinburgh last week.
Australia and England have faced each other a total of 24 times in T20Is. Both teams are at level with 11 wins on each side and two no-result matches.
England won the toss and opted to bowl first. However, Team Australia turned the game around when they were called to bat.
England vs Australia: Head and Short’s explosive partnership weighed hard!
Australia’s Travis Head and Mathew Short were the stars of the match with their power-packed partnership. The golden minutes of the game came at Australia’s powerplay where Mathew Short scored 11 runs in the first nine deliveries.
Head started slow but caught up and went after Sam Curran unsparingly with three sixes and three fours making it a 30-run-over. 86 overall runs were scored in the powerplay alone.
Liam Livingstone’s all-round batting performance for England of 3 wickets for 22 runs and 37 runs wasn’t good enough to prevent the defeat.
Australia’s bowlers, led by Josh Hazlewood (2-32) and Sean Abbott (3-28), restricted England to 151 all out, with only inconsistent and brief resistance from Livingstone and Sam Curran.
As a result of his explosive batting, Head is speculated as the most dangerous player in the knockouts. The Australian cricket team yet again reasserted their dominance. Buttler’s absence from the captaincy throne served as a huge disadvantage for England.
Team England’s stand-in captain Phil Salt expressed his after-thoughts and said that the team should have chased the target realistically.
They were a couple of wickets too far down. The player stressed the need to have a better execution strategy. Salt is filling in as the T20I captain in the absence of an injured Jos Buttler. The hard-hitting captain and wicket-keeper is recovering from an on-field calf injury.
Before the England vs Australia match, former New Zealand cricketer Brendon McCullum was newly appointed the white ball head coach for team England. He hailed Jos Buttler as England’s greatest white ball player and attempted to raise the injured captain’s spirit.
Team Australia now leads the three-match series at 1-0. The second match between the two teams is scheduled for Friday, 13th September in Cardiff.
P.S.
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Know more about all cricket-related news and tournaments, read articles on the upcoming India vs Bangladesh Test series and the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.
