ICC World Cup 2019: 2nd Semi-Final, Australia vs England – Statistical Preview

England will face Australia in the Birmingham semi-final as they aim for their first World Cup final since 1992 and the first at home since 1979. England qualified for the semis by defeating India and New Zealand in their last two matches when their qualification was hanging on the sword. Australia were set to face New Zealand in the semis until they lost to South Africa in the final league match. More than the defeat, it is the injuries to the top-order batsmen that would be worrying Australia more as Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marsh have been ruled out of the tournament.

All the key stats and numbers ahead of the second semi-final between England and Australia:

0 – Australia never lost a semi-final in the World Cup across their previous seven appearances. The 1999 edition semi-final against South Africa also hosted by Birmingham ended in a Tie but went through to the final having defeated the Proteas in the group stages.

4 – Australia won each of their last four World Cup matches against England; all the four since the start of 2003. The last time England beat Australia in a CWC game was in the 1992 edition. Until 1992, the head to head record between the two sides in CWC reads 2-2.

7 – Aaron Finch has scored seven centuries in ODI cricket against England; two more than the next best. The Australian skipper scored 1253 runs from 25 ODI innings at an average of 52.20 against the English side. Finch has two hundreds in the World Cup against England and is the only player with the feat.

10 – England won each of their last 10 matches in International cricket at Edgbaston, a streak that includes four ODIs. England’s last International defeat came against India in an ODI in 2014.

26 – Mitchell Starc has bagged 26 wickets from nine games in the World Cup 2019 at an average of 16.61 with two 4-fers and two 5-wicket hauls. Starc needs one more wicket to break Glenn McGrath’s record of most wickets in a World Cup edition (26 wickets in 2007 CWC). The left-arm pacer needs two more wickets to become only the 5th player to claim 50 wickets in the World Cup and the fastest to the milestone.

26.9 – Joe Root has played ODIs against ten different full member nations but only against Australia, he averages less than 50. His ODI batting average against the Aussies reads only 26.9 as he scored 565 runs from 24 innings with help of five half-centuries.

983 – Runs David Warner has scored in his 17-match World Cup career. Warner needs 17 more runs to become the 4th Australian and the fastest to 1000 World Cup runs.

1993 – The last instance of Australia winning an ODI in Birmingham was way back in 1993. In the last 25 years, Aussies played 8 ODIs at this venue losing in three of them. Four matches ended without a result while another game ended in a Tie.

2001 – Last time Australia won an International match at Edgbaston was in 2001 during a Test match against the hosts. Since that win, Australia played 13 matches losing in eight of them. A Test match ended in a draw while four ODIs ended without a result in this span.

4981 – David Warner needs 19 more runs for completing 5000 runs in ODI cricket. The opening batsman will be joint 2nd fastest to the milestone and the fastest among Australians if he scores those 19 runs in his next innings.