Travis Head illuminated a cold, dank night in Southampton, crashing a record-breaking half-century to ignite some Australian fireworks in a convincing 28-run conquer England of their T20 worldwide opener.
The see-it-hit-it opener blasted the quickest ever T20I half-century by an Australian batter off simply 19 balls, finally occurring to 59 off 23 after the guests had been put in to bat by stand-in England captain Phil Salt.
Although the pyrotechnics then fizzled out following his dismissal as England battled again to bowl Australia out for 179 of their last over, England’s chase flopped to 151 all out, dismantled by terrific bowling from the important thing duo of Josh Hazlewood and Adam Zampa, and headlined by a bit of magical fielding from Tim David.
Together with Matt Quick, a shock selection as his opening companion after thrilling prospect Jake Fraser-McGurk was dropped, Head had earlier hammered England’s assault to all elements of the Rose Bowl because the pair amassed 86 off a scintillating powerplay.
However as soon as Head was out on the ultimate ball of the sixth over, Australia misplaced momentum and wickets simply as shortly, with solely Quick’s 41 off 26 balls and Josh Inglis’s priceless 37 off 27 getting them to an honest goal when a rating of nicely over 200 had regarded on the playing cards.
After a quiet begin within the face of some swift bowling from Jofra Archer, Head, the world’s quantity one-ranked T20 batter, murdered Sam Curran’s first over, smashing the left-armer for 30 runs with 4, 4, six, six, six and 4.
Head then swatted his subsequent ball from Saqib Mahmood into the stands at deep backward sq. leg to achieve his 50 — additionally the quickest ever scored in opposition to England in a T20I — and acquired away with a pair extra flukey boundaries earlier than trying one monster hit too many and skying it to deep sq. leg.
The 22-year-old Fraser-McGurk paid the worth for scoring simply 16, together with two geese, in his three knocks in the course of the collection win over Scotland and Quick, again from paternity go away, celebrated his sudden recall with a formidable knock which included two successive sixes off Reece Topley in simply the second over.
Travis Head lit up the match with a shocking half century to provide Australia the higher hand after the primary innings. (Getty Photographs: Andy Kearns)
Adil Rashid (1-23 off 4 overs) and Liam Livingstone (3-22 off three), who trapped Marcus Stoinis (10) and David lbw in successive balls, began England’s spectacular restore job.
Then Mahmood (2-21) and Archer (2-31) additionally each dismissed batters in successive balls with some toe-tapping music as Australia collapsed, dropping their final 4 wickets within the house of 10 deliveries.
Salt was caught off the primary ball of England’s reply, solely to be reprieved by Xavier Bartlett having over-stepped.
However after the hosts had moved ominously to 1-40 within the fifth over, David made up for his golden duck with an astonishing operating catch at deep mid-on at full stretch off Bartlett to eliminate debutant Jordan Cox.
Zampa, described by former captain Ricky Ponting as Australia’s most necessary participant, was sensible once more together with his miserly flat leg spin, taking 2-20 off his 4 overs to stifle the England innings.
Hazlewood, recovered from a calf harm, took the important thing wicket of Livingstone, bowling him off an inside edge when the big-hitting all-rounder had moved dangerously to 37 off 27 balls.
The skilled pacer completed with 2-32, whereas all-rounder Sean Abbott additionally impressed together with his 3-28 off 3.2 overs.
AAP
