Aussies spoil English Valentine’s Day party

Expectations and deepest fears were both met almost exactly on the World Cup's opening day in Melbourne. Australia, the hosts and champions, defeated England, one of the outsiders, by 111 runs on Valentine’s Day (Saturday).
It was a hopelessly one-sided contest which augurs badly for the tournament as a competitive spectacle but seemed to offer early confirmation that there are two distinct camps comprising the very good indeed and the extremely moderate.
There was never a realistic hope that England could successfully pursue the target of 343 set by Australia but to be bowled out for 231 in 41.5 overs, with the match effectively done long before was profoundly disheartening. Australia batted better, bowled better and fielded better than England.
The two most prominent individual performances of the match came from Aaron Finch, who scored 135 from 128 balls opening Australia's innings, and Mitchell Marsh, who took 5 for 33 in dismantling his opponents' top and middle order.
There was one England player in sight, James Taylor, who made a brisk, always forlorn 98 not out after being demoted to number six. He was left stranded in peculiar circumstances after being given out lbw, only to be reprieved on review. Unfortunately he then found that his partner Jimmy Anderson had been run out as the pair tried to scramble a leg bye. Confusion reigned. But the result was crystal clear.
At one point, England seemed to be in the match, in the tournament, when they had Australia at 70-3, a position which eminently justified the decision to field on winning the toss. But after that Australia went inexorably, irrepressibly on, led by Finch who was given valuable support by the captain, George Bailey.
Perhaps the die was cast in the first over when a single ball seemed to encapsulate the present differences between these sides. Finch clipped Jimmy Anderson hard and high to square leg where Chris Woakes reacted a fraction too slowly for the ball to burst through his hands. It was a chance that should have been taken and for which England paid the full price.
AFP from Christchurch says: New Zealand made the perfect start to the World Cup when a swashbuckling Brendon McCullum led his side to a 98-run win over Sri Lanka at Hagley Oval in Christchurch Saturday.
McCullum's quickfire 65 set New Zealand up for an imposing 331-6, with Kane Williamson adding 57 in the middle of the innings and Corey Anderson blasting 75 off 46 at the tail.
Sri Lanka made a steady start in reply and were 124-1 in the 22nd over, setting themselves up for a big finish.
But on a grey Christchurch day, where the temperature hovered around 13 degrees Celsius, they were soon to feel the heat as New Zealand mounted a triple strike and they were all out for 233 with nearly four overs remaining.