Brilliant Aussies punish outclassed England – to Scottish glee

Australia win by 36 runs
Australia 201-7 (20 0vers)

England 165-6 (20 0vers)

England’s cricketers find themselves in the very unusual position of waiting for Scotland to lose to retain any hopes of progressing in a a cricket tournament.

Their 36 run defeat to Australia, their somewhat more traditional rival in this sport, left them on one point from two games, two behind Scotland and three behind Australia.

At best, England can make five points.

To do so, they must beat both Namibia and Oman which they would seriously hope to do under any circumstances.

However should the Scots win their next match, against Oman in Antigua, they will progres to five points too and England can only surpass them on net run rate. The scale of today’s defeat will not help that aspiration.

Australia batted first and made the tournament’s best score so far, and the first of 200 or more.

From the second over, England were in trouble.

Will Jacks bowled it and Travis Head and David Warner plundered it mercilessly for 22. From 25 off two overs, Australia barely dipped under a run rate of ten an over.

Their 50 came up in just 22 balls.

Six of those 22 deliveries had been dispatched for 6. It was by far the best start any batting side had made in the 2024 finals yet. One Mark Wood over cost 22

It was really hard to pinpoint any moment when they didn’t look like getting 200. By the time the first wicket came, Australia were 70-1 off just five overs. 201 may have even been a disappointment from such a flying start.

Over the tournament, it had taken England 15 overs and 160 runs to take a wicket by then.

By the time, they had bowled 20 overs in this cup, they had conceced 192 runs for just two wickets.

In mid innings, Australia finally began to lose their way. From 139-2, they slumped to 168-5.

Just 33 runs came off the final 19 balls which was a little short of what looked possible and a real relief to England.

Head, Warner, Mitchel Marsh and Marcis Stoinis all made 30s, GlennMaxwell 28 amd Matthew Wade a late 17 off 10 balls.

Will Jacks never bowled again after that disastrous second over. Chris Jordan took 2-44 over his four overs.

England started the batting response well.

Phil Salt made 29 and Jos Buttler 21 as the Europeans passed 50 without loss. After seven overs, they were a monumental 73-0.

The final 13 overs produced just 92 runs for 6 wickets. Australia just gently moved up gear after gear.

Wickets fell at 92, 96, 124, 128 and 152 but none of them surrounded a ramping up of the scoring rate and the gush of early boundaries turned into a drip feed.

Pat Cummings four overs cost just 23 with two wickets. Adam Zampa claimed 2-28.

Australia don’t even seem to have played to their full potential yet.

That’ll worry bigger fish than Namibia and Scotland, their next opponents.