The 2024 Australian tour of England started off on a really fantastic note as Mitchell Marsh and his men managed to reign supreme in the first T20 International of the three-game Twenty Twenty series against the Three Lions.
A quickfire half-century from opening batter Travis Head and a bowling master-class from leggie Adam Zampa helped the Kangaroos secure a comfortable 28-run victory and the 2021 T20 World Cup winners now lead the series by 1-0.
The visitors got all-out for 179 runs in their 19.3 overs on Wednesday as they failed to capitalise on the amazing start given to their side by the opening duo of Travis Head (59 runs in 23 balls) and Matthew Short (41 runs in 26 balls), who stitched an opening partnership of 86 runs at the Utilita Bowl Stadium of Southampton.
Spin bowling duo of Liam Livingstone (3-22) and Adil Rashid (1-23) ensured that the Aussies weren’t able to score runs freely in the middle phase of their inning and some miserable shot-selection by the Australian batters allowed England to gain control.
Seamers Saqib Mahmood (2-21) and Jofra Archer (2-31) got rid of the tailenders quickly and the visitors ended their inning at 179 runs.
The Mitchell Marsh-led team had raced to a score of 118-2 and looked set post a total of more than 200 runs but they lost their remaining eight wickets in quick succession and managed to score just 61 runs in the remaining ten overs of their inning.
Chasing down a total of 180 runs in familiar conditions looked like an easy task for the Three Lions but their batters were not able to find any answers against the bowling heroics of the Australian bowlers the visitors bundled out the home side for a disappointing score of 151 runs in 19.2 overs.
Sean Abbot (3-28) and Adam Zampa (2-20) were the best bowlers of the night and they received an ample amount of support from the likes of Josh Hazlewood (2-32), Cameron Green (1-14), Marcus Stoinis (1-30) and Xavier Bartlett (1-26). Overall, it was a complete effort with both bat and ball from the Mighty Aussies.
This win over England was Australia’s fourth-successive T20 International victory after they whitewashed Scotland by a margin of 3-0 in Edinburgh.
The visitors are no doubt happy about the win but they are worried about the fitness of seamer Xavier Bartlett who limped his way off the ground as he failed to complete his final over.
“We certainly were on track to get a score of 200 and we gave our best to stuff-it-up,” Australia’s skipper Mitchell Marsh said in a laughing way in the post-match presentation.
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