World Cup 2015: Australia vs England Review; Australia routs England by 111 runs

World Cup 2015: Australia vs England Review; Australia routs England by 111 runs: England struggle in both bowling and batting departments, while Australia strengthen their claim for a 5th World cup title. Here is the review of the second match of World cup 2015:

The second match of the World cup between arch rivals Australia and England proved to be a one-sided affair. England won the toss in Melbourne in front of more than 80,000 spectators and chose to field first.

Australia opened with Aaron Finch and David Warner and they put on a brisk 55 runs stand. But soon they slid to 70-3 with Shane Watson dismissed on the first ball and Steve Smith (5) following soon after falling to Chris Woakes. Finch then rebuilt the innings with Captain George Bailey (55 off 69 balls) adding 140 runs for the 5^th wicket.

Finch was then dismissed via run out for 135 runs off 128 balls which contained 12 fours and 3 sixes. Glenn Maxwell then led the assault in the last 10 overs with the help of quick-fire innings from Mitchell Marsh (23 off 20balls) and Brad Haddin (31 off 14 balls). Australia scored 105 runs in the last 10 overs thanks to its batting depth. The England bowlers looked helpless in front of the Australian batsmen. Even the lone spinner Moeen Ali was ineffective giving away 60 runs in his 9 overs and providing the batsmen with a launch pad for the last overs. Though Glen Maxwell didn’t hit any sixes today, his dominance over the spinners and quick bowlers gave every one a glimpse of what’s in store for the opposition in the coming matches. Australia scored a big score of 342 for the loss of 9 wickets at the end of their 50 overs.

The only shining light of the dark cloud that is the English bowling was the hat-trick by Steven Finn from the last 3 balls of the Australian innings. It also gave Finn 5 wickets on his World cup debut. It was an ominous task for England since they have never scored anything above 306 to win an ODI chasing.

The English inning started on a strong note and 25 runs came off the first 4 overs, but Moeen Ali fell for 10 runs to Starc and it began a fall of wickets that left England 6-92 by the 21^st over. Another World cup debutant Mitchell Marsh ran through the top and middle order of English batting taking 5-18 in his first spell of 7 overs. He dismissed opener Ian Bell (36), Gary Balance (10), Joe Root (5), Jos Buttler (10) and Captain Eoin Morgan (0) cheaply in just a matter of 6 overs from his spell. Just when it looked like a partnership forming, Marsh dismissed the batsmen, never giving a chance to James Taylor, who valiantly tried to put England back on strike.

James Taylor finally got some support from Chris Woakes who scored 37 runs and added an invaluable 92 runs with James Taylor for the 8^th wicket. But after he was dismissed, it was just a matter of time England folded up. The tail-enders tried to stick on the wicket for the sake of Taylor’s century, but both Chris Broad (0) and Steven Finn (1) fell in quick succession. James Anderson stuck around for 11 balls and James Taylor reached 98 before Anderson was controversially given run out, after Taylor had taken a DRS review after being given out LBW to Josh Hazlewood. The umpires conversed amongst themselves and finally gave Anderson out, leaving Taylor 2 runs short of a much deserved century. England fell short by 111 runs, being dismissed for 231 runs in just 41.5 overs.

Aaron Finch was given the Man of the match award for his wonderful 135 runs.

Brief Scores:
Australia 342 for 9 (Finch 135, Maxwell 66, Finn 5-71) beat England 231 (Taylor 98*, Marsh 5-33) by 111 runs