126/2 (11.4)
CR : 10.80
125/10 (20.0)
CR : 6.25
England won by 8 wickets
Player of the Match
Chris Jordan
3/17
11.2
1
A Agar to J Bairstow
Pulls his back of a length ball to deep backward square leg for one.
11.3
1
A Agar to J Buttler
What was that? That was a cruel late dab to third man. Jos was initially eyeing for the on-side but that brings out a late steer to an outside off ball to third man for one.
11.4
1
A Agar to J Bairstow
Single and that is it. England has chased it down with 9.2 overs to spare. Full and wide. Bairstow bends low to canter through for a single, much like they've cantered through the entire run chase. England win by 8 wickets with 50 balls remaining!
ENG won by 8 wickets
Arjun: What was that? How is this even possible? England chased the target of 126 runs in just 70 deliveries. Simple maths? Mad cricket! Yeah, it was maniac like batting as the openers - Jos Buttler and Jason Roy dismantled the Aussie bowlers like they were playing EA Sports Cricket '07.
Aaron Finch's resistance and some lower-order hitting helped the Australians to post a mere total of 125 runs on a flat Dubai pitch. If you ask an Aussie fan, it wasn't an easy deck to bat on. As per them, Woakes was moving around. Mills and Jordan were seaming it. Adil Rashid and Livingstone were spinning it quarters. But it's all untrue. It is just an awful display of batting by the Aaron Finch-led Australia.
If the Aussies were awful with the bat, then England batters were formidable. If English bowlers were impeccable, then Australians were spanked on will. Roy and Buttler started a bit consciously but let loose once they spent some time in the middle.
Both of them took the attack to the bowlers and went berserk. In the process, Roy was dismissed for 22, but Buttler carried on and remained 71*. He also notched the joint-fastest T20 WC fifty as he smeared the bowling. Bairstow and Malan too got to free their hands. All in all, it was an easy English thumping.
Chris Jordan is the player of the match!
Chris Jordan: Great bowling effort from the boys again, just tried to back up what we did in the first game and what Woakes and Rashid did really allowed us to come back in the game and set the tone. We tried to assess the pitch and tried to hold our length as much as possible, bowling straight was the key. We just went with the rhythm of the game. The way the boys batted was unbelievable. I have been working on my yorkers everyday. It is important to back your strength and keep adding something to your armory. (On being a senior player in the squad)Everyday you just try to keep working hard, to keep doing well for the team as there are so many deserving players looking to get in the XI and then everything takes care of itself."
Aaron Finch: "We should have hung around in the middle (during our batting). It was all about hanging around and we didn't. After losing few wickets in the powerplay, we had to hang in there and get to a total we thought would be defendable. They bowled well and put us on the back foot early. You had to bowl them out with that kind of total, but Jos Buttler played a hell of an innings and put the pressure on us and it's just one of those nights where we got off to a poor start and it kept compounding unfortunately. We got a couple of days to recharge now, give the guys some much-needed rest and take on Bangladesh next."
Eoin Morgan: "Obviously we got off to a good start in the first two games of the tournament and challenge first is always is adapting to the conditions away from home and we did that really in the first two games and then again today, the big test against a really strong Australian side. We sort of held up pretty well right from the beginning, holding our nerve and creating opportunities with the ball. Depending on how the wicket plays you have to have one or two guys to go to, and they came up trumps. The openers look in really good form, Roy MoM against Bangladesh and Buttler following suit. They are all hard ones, we treat everyone with the same respect, it's a tough competition, we go from here to Sharjah for two games in five days."
That's all we have from the commentary box. Do join us for another doubleheader tomorrow. Till then it's ta-ta and goodnight from me, Arjun Bhalla, on the behalf of my fellow commentator Ninaad Dixit.