CT 2017: Match 10, ENG vs AUS – 5 Game Changing Moments

The highly anticipated final match of Group A finally took place at the Edgbaston which has seen many battles between the old foes of the sport, England and Australia, locking horns against each other. This time around as well they treated us with yet another classic encounter and England came out triumphant in the match.

After winning the toss, Eoin Morgan put Steve Smith’s side to bat fist and would have been delighted to see the outcome in between the interval. Australia somehow gifted their wickets away on their way to post a total of 277. Travis Head was the lone warrior for the men in yellow as scored a handy 71. He was well supported by the partnership of Finch and Smith at the top of the order before they decided to give their wicket away.

England in reply had no answer to the spell of Hazlewood and Starc as they lost their top 3 batsmen with almost nothing on the board. But Stokes and Morgan repeated the heroics of Mahmudullah and Shakib and took their side towards victory.

England won the match by 6 wickets by DLS method after rain abandoned the match. Ben Stokes was awarded man of the match for his incredible hundred. With this win, Australia was knocked out of the tournament and Bangladesh make a backdoor entry into the semi-finals, overtaking Australia and New Zealand. Let us look at the five game-changing moments of the match

1. Finch-Smith Partnership

After losing the wicket of David Warner to a beauty from Mark Wood, the skipper of Australia played a captain’s knock of 56 off 77 balls. Aaron Finch made batting look easy for his 64-ball 68. The stocky right-hander screamed 8 boundaries in his innings. The duo stitched an important partnership of 96 off 94 to lay a solid platform for the likes of Maxwell, Head and Henriques. Australians were wonderfully placed to score a big total against the mighty batting attack of England.

2. Batsmen giving catching practice to English fielder’s

Apart from the dismissal of Maxwell and Warner, all the batsmen for Australia literally gave their wicket as early Christmas presents to the home side, in return of their hospitalities. Finch, Smith, Henriques, Wade, Starc and Cummins, all gave their wickets by offering simple catches off full toss or loose deliveries. It was baffling to see so many catches one after the other and give away the entire momentum of the game. You won’t get to see such an innings in International matches frequently.

3. Jason Roy’s catch

After Australia lost a large chunk of their top-order batsman, Glenn Maxwell and Travis Head put together some crucial runs and the duo was expected to feature in the final onslaught during the last ten overs of the Australian innings. Mark Wood in the 43rd over, pitched a short delivery to Maxwell. The batsman hooked one which almost sailed over the ropes. But Alas! Look who was present in front of the boundary.

The man who disappointed the most with the bat for England ensured he made his presence felt in the tournament by taking a brilliant catch at deep Mid-wicket with the help of his balancing act. A lot expected out of Maxwell who was just getting to his fifth gear. A mm here and there would have been a different proposition for the Australians.

4. Incoming of rain

The much-hyped Australian bowling, which is probably the best in the tournament, were just beginning to flex their muscles as they stormed past the English top-order by dismissing the woefully out of form Jason Roy, the two batsmen in red-hot form Alex Hales and Joe Root. They had no answer to the opening spell of Hazlewood and Starc and certainly, the target of 278 seemed a lot bigger.

However, the look on the Steve Smith’s face when he had to take his fielders due to rain, summed up the fate of Australians in the tournament. It was only due to rains which got them to a must-win position and when they had to advantage, the game took an undesired halt and it looked like Morgan and Stokes were batting in a completely different track once the play resumed. This was the primary game-changing moment in the match.

5. Ben Stokes-Morgan champion knocks

Ben Stokes and Eoin Morgan’s innings today was emblematic of the modern era of fearless English cricket. After being under tremendous pressure, the two English innings stitched a typical counter-attacking partnership which absolutely deflated the Aussie attack, repeating the heroics from Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah yesterday.

Stokes went on to score a hundred after Morgan selflessly gave his wicket away in an unfortunate run-out but not before playing one of the innings of the tournament for his knock of 87 off just 81 balls. Ben Stokes remained unbeaten at 102 before rains finally knocked out the Australians out of the tournament