Put into bat by England, the ever-so-reliable duo of Aaron Finch and David Warner, after uncharacteristically failing to fire against Pakistan, raced off to their THIRD 70+ run opening stand in four matches to inflict pain and misery on the English bowlers right from the get go. Quickfire knocks from all three of Warner, Finch and Smith meant that Australia were threatening to breach the 225-mark at one stage, but a bizarre, start-stop end to the innings meant that 199 was what they ended with on a good batting track.

England’s response in the second innings was reminiscent of their display in the group stages of the 2019 World Cup against the Aussies at Lord’s, as the Three Lions were blown away by a thunderous opening spell by the left-armer, which accounted for the wickets of Buttler, Bairstow and Root. A brief, counter-attacking partnership between Morgan and Stokes instilled a temporary ray of hope, but an untimely dismissal of the skipper turned out to be fatal as England succumbed to a 36-run defeat at the end. 

Chasing a total of 200 can be a daunting task even if you have all 10 wickets in hand - what South Africa showed us earlier this tournament - but that task becomes next to impossible when your top-order is ripped off within the powerplay. Mitchell Starc’s spell with the new ball - the third over, in particular, where he removed both Bairstow and Root - crippled England to the point of no return. They were playing catch-up right from that moment and eventually, it just turned out to be a mountain too steep to climb.

For every Maxwell, there will be an Alex Carey. Unfortunately, that’s how sport works. Not only was Carey’s knock an absolute snoozefest, but the South Australian almost single handedly transformed a guaranteed 225-ish score into just 199. At one point, he was 11* off 14 and mind you, Australia were 142/3 in just 13 overs when he walked in to bat. The lowest of lows, that.

I’m not particularly sure if Australia watched footage of their semi-final clash in the WC against England where they lost the plot in the powerplay and rectified those flaws, but today, they just seemed like they were three steps ahead of the English bowlers on all fronts. They hit a staggering TEN boundaries in the first 6 overs and punched the living soul out of Jordan, Wood and Archer. 69/0 at the end of the powerplay? I’d take it 10/10 times. 

As mentioned before, at one stage, it looked like Australia were willing to take the English bowlers to hell and beyond; 91 was what they scored in the middle overs and at the end of 15 overs, they were 160/4. Perhaps they lost one too many wickets in the middle, but they did the right thing, which was not to take the foot off the pedal. Overs 7-15 was like an extended highlights package, to be honest. Six, Four, Wicket, Six, Wicket was all that was happening. 

If I were to take up coaching fifteen years later, I know what footage I’d be showing my students - the last 5 overs of Australia’s innings today. I’d play that and specifically tell them that’s how you DON’T bat at the death. I mean, yeah, England walk away with 9 marks, but in all honesty, they have the Aussie batsmen to thank for. How they ended up scoring JUST 199 after being 160 at the end of the 15th over is simply unfathomable. There were only THREE boundaries hit in the last 5 overs. Could you imagine that?

The match started off in sixth gear and slowly dropped in pace as it went on, but nevertheless, there was  good balance between bat and ball and so it provided for great viewing. They say England vs Australia never disappoints and well, this one surely didn’t.