Australia 4-213 (Cameron White 75, Aaron Finch 52, Luke Wright 1-18) beat England 9-200 (Ravi Bopara 65*, Joe Root 32, Nathan Coulter-Nile 4-30, Moises Henriques 2-36) by 13 runs.
The Kangaroos continued their dominance against the visiting Englishmen who once again were unable to impress even in the shortest version of the game.
The Aussies powered 213 for the loss of just four wickets in the allotted 20 overs and the tourists managed 200 with one wicket remaining.
Cameron White (Australia) was declared ‘Player of the match’ for his dashing knock of 75 runs.
The first Twenty20 of the three match series was held on Wednesday, January 29, 2014, at Bellerive Oval, Hobart.
Earlier, George Bailey, the skipper of the home side, won the toss and opted to bat first. The opener, Cameron White, was dropped at 11 and he never looked back from there, whereas his partner Aaron Finch was aggressive from the word go. The latter rushed to his third T20 fifty on the 26th ball and the first followed him with his fourth one on 32nd delivery.
The association was broken at 106 when Finch lost his wicket for 52 from 31 balls with 3 lofty sixes and 5 fours. White became the next victim at 134 for 75 off 43 comprising 4 giant sixes and 6 fours. The debutant Chris Lynn secured his end for 33 as the Kangaroos hammered 4-213 in the required overs.
The English captain, Stuart Broad, Jade Dernbach, Ravi Bopara and Luke Wright shared one wicket each.
The four top order batsmen of England surrendered at 51 in 6.3 overs when Joe Root and Jos Buttler tried to mend the innings. They escalated the rate of scoring and took the score to 98 as the latter was gone for 20. Root departed two runs later for 32 and Ravi Bopara accepted the challenge of stabilising the innings with little partnerships. Bopara dispatched four smart sixes from the initial 12 deliveries he faced and smashed the fastest T20 fifty for England on the 24th delivery. He remained unbeaten for 65 off 27 mere balls with 7 towering sixes and 2 fours as the visitors reached 9-200 after 20 overs.
Nathan Coulter-Nile was the star performer with four wickets, Moises Henriques held two whereas Glenn Maxwell and James Muirhead chipped in with one wicket each.
Australia won the encounter with a margin of 13 runs and leads the series at 1-0.
Leave a Reply