Australia rout feeble England
Saturday, 15 September 2007
Australia bounced back in style from Wednesday night's humiliation against Zimbabwe, producing a performance with bat and ball that was as disciplined and purposeful as their earlier efforts had been flaccid and complacent. After losing the toss and being asked to bowl first, they stifled England's attacking intent to bowl them out for 135, then raced to an eight-wicket victory with more than a quarter of the overs remaining, thanks largely to an unbeaten 67 from 43 balls from Matthew Hayden, reports Cricinfo.
The cause of England's downfall was a muddled performance from their batsman, who seemed more distracted by Australia's pre-match predicament than the Aussies themselves. Though Kevin Pietersen had talked in gleeful terms of "humiliating" their oldest rivals and sending them home early, none of his team-mates were able to back up the big words with deeds. Pietersen bristled during a 20-ball cameo but yorked himself when well set on 21, Collingwood clobbered 18 quick runs then missed a low full-toss, and by the time the last five wickets had tumbled for eight runs, Andrew Flintoff's 31 from 19 balls was as good as England could offer.
After the Zimbabwe match, Ricky Ponting called on his players to respect the game a little more, and Australia were a committed unit from the very first ball. Brett Lee, whose thunderbolts had been misdirected on Wednesday, conceded just nine runs in his first two overs to push England's openers onto the defensive, and he was superbly backed up by his fellow seamers - Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson - who took eight wickets between them and in doing so conceded not more than six runs an over.
Australia 136 for 2 (Hayden 67*) beat England 135 (Flintoff 31, Bracken 3-16) by eight wickets
The cause of England's downfall was a muddled performance from their batsman, who seemed more distracted by Australia's pre-match predicament than the Aussies themselves. Though Kevin Pietersen had talked in gleeful terms of "humiliating" their oldest rivals and sending them home early, none of his team-mates were able to back up the big words with deeds. Pietersen bristled during a 20-ball cameo but yorked himself when well set on 21, Collingwood clobbered 18 quick runs then missed a low full-toss, and by the time the last five wickets had tumbled for eight runs, Andrew Flintoff's 31 from 19 balls was as good as England could offer.
After the Zimbabwe match, Ricky Ponting called on his players to respect the game a little more, and Australia were a committed unit from the very first ball. Brett Lee, whose thunderbolts had been misdirected on Wednesday, conceded just nine runs in his first two overs to push England's openers onto the defensive, and he was superbly backed up by his fellow seamers - Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson - who took eight wickets between them and in doing so conceded not more than six runs an over.
Australia 136 for 2 (Hayden 67*) beat England 135 (Flintoff 31, Bracken 3-16) by eight wickets