England’s white-ball refresh got off to a false start as Travis Head’s fifty helped Australia win the first T20 by 28 runs.
England, looking to draw a line in the dull T20 World Cup, struggled to catch up after Head scored 59 off 23 balls. Head hit 30 runs in one over off Sam Curran and smashed 12 boundaries in total.
After Adil Rashid broke, Liam Livingstone took three wickets and conceded one boundary to take the score to 4-0-23-1 as Australia stumbled from 86-1 at the end of the powerplay to 179 runs in 19.3 overs.
A bridge too far
Livingstone had a brief moment of brilliance after the home team fell short in the chase to 52-4, but he was dismissed after scoring 37 runs from 27 balls, ending England’s hopes of taking the lead in this three-match series.
They eventually scored 151 points without using four balls and on that evidence it looks like Brendan McCollum will be taking the reins in the new year and consolidating his coaching role will happen quickly.
Australia, without the retired David Warner and several rested multi-format stars, proved too strong against England, who had three debutants in Jordan Cox, Jacob Bethell and Jamie Overton.
None of the three made it big at the Utility Bowl, where more than 1,000 solar panels were switched on for the first time as part of Hampshire’s efforts to make the stadium the world’s greenest.
Immediate attack
But Head gave it a boost after Matthew Short bounced Reece Topley off his pads for a six-pointer.
Head opened the scoring with a leading edge through an empty backward point and although he lost three in an over to Archer, the world number one batsman got the ball rolling for four off the remaining three balls.
After being caught behind and overturned in the 15th over, Head fired up every ball for boundaries in Curran’s erratic first over, scoring three sixes including a sumptuous curve over deep point.
Saqib Mahmood also went for the top edge after one too many swings after Head had made his 19-ball fifty. But Australia still dominated, and England relied on their trump card, Rashid, who, as he often does, disrupted the scoring and cleared Mitch Marsh’s off-stump.
Short, reluctant to be too adventurous against the world’s No. 1 T20 bowler, gave away 41 runs to Livingstone, who swept Marcus Stoinis and Tim David lbw with successive balls. Both were caught on the front pad and not out, but England’s review was successful.
With Livingstone still having an over to play, substitute captain Phil Salt had good reason to be looking to get back on track despite the previous defeat, with Curran recovering from a head-on hit to catch Josh Inglis. Inglis then missed a reverse scoop to clinch the game and finish on 37 runs.
Australia then lost steam as Archer’s pinpoint yorkers saw him beat Shaun Abbott and Javier Bartlett, while Mahmood also claimed a team hat-trick by beating Cameron Green.
Hitting error
Salt was caught out for a no-ball as England’s counterattack began but Will Jacks was unlucky to be caught out by regular Josh Hazlewood after missing Australia’s recent 3-0 win over Scotland.
Salt, who replaced the injured Jos Buttler as captain-wicketkeeper, took four fours in Hazelwood’s next over, but two of them came via a shaky inside edge before Cox soared into the night sky and David took a superb running catch before taking 20 off Shaun Abbott.
After Adam Zampa broke through Bethel’s defence, England went into quicksand, leading 68-4 at the halfway point.
Livingstone was hit on the helmet by Stoinis but gave the home side a glimmer of hope with two fours in the next over as England fought hard for their first six runs.
But England’s bid for victory was all but over when Curran mishit Abbott backward square leg and Livingstone under-edged Hazelwood to stumps in the next over. Zampa crushed England to 20 for 2, and Abbott finished with three wickets to give Australia a comfortable win.
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