At the Manuka Oval, England defeated Australia for the second time in a row in the second Twenty20 International of the three-match series. With this win, the visitors have taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series. Jos Buttler’s lead side registered another narrow win over the hosts thanks to some great performances from all the departments of the team.
A fairly good performance from the batters followed by an excellent display by the bowlers saved the day for their team as they try to strengthen their preparations ahead of the World T20, which is just a couple of weeks away.
The Australia captain, Aaron Finch, won the toss and opted to field first once again, just like the previous match. England got off to a shaky start, as they lost both of their in-form openers inside the power play.
Ben Stokes too walked back cheaply for 7. Hard-hitting batsman Harry Brook too perished just for 1 with England reduced to 54/4 in the 9th over. Moeen Ali, who was in at no. 6, started setting up a much-needed partnership with well-set David Malan as the duo started rebuilding the innings.
Both the left-handers displayed an exceptional range of shots as they stitched up a fine partnership together to get their side out of a hole.
With Moeen Ali’s dismissal for 44, his stand with Malan came to an end at 92. Despite the stand being broken, David Malan who was in fine rhythm didn’t let the momentum shift away from the batting side as he found some fantastic shots towards the death overs to take the total to 178 in 20 overs.
Australia didn’t have the perfect start to their run chase as they lost both their openers at a score of 22.
Glenn Maxwell too couldn’t manage to get the quick runs and ended up perishing for just Mitchell Marsh who was well set stitched up a fine partnership with Marcus Stoinis but with the untimely wicket of Stonis at 22, the partnership was cut short at 40.
Marsh, who was looking fine, was dismissed five short of his fifty with Australia 5 down for 114. Tim David, who was in at No. 6, smashed some magnificent shots to get Australia back into the game.
However, once again, the England bowlers did brilliantly as Sam Curran dismissed a dangerous Tim David for 40 as Australia was cruising towards a win.
With his wicket, the next two overs couldn’t get big enough for Australia as the England bowlers did a fantastic job to choke the runs. Despite some good shots from Pat Cummins towards the last moments of the match Australia fell short by just 8 runs just like they did in the first match.
Sam Curran was the peak of the bowlers with 3 wickets to his name. England’s Dawid Malan was awarded the man of the match for his brilliant 82-run innings.