Southampton
Tom Curran held his nerve as England beat Australia by two runs in a final-ball thriller to win the first Twenty20 international at Southampton on Friday and go 1-0 up in a three-match series.
Australia, in their first competitive match for nearly six months because of the coronavirus, were making light work of a target of 163 while captain Aaron Finch (46) and David Warner (58) were putting on 98 for the first wicket.
But star batsman Steve Smith’s exit for just 18 sparked a collapse that saw Australia lose four wickets for nine runs in 14 balls.
Chris Jordan, in his 50th match at this level, conceded just four runs in the penultimate over that ended with him running out Ashton Agar.
A target of 15 off six balls became five off one. But Marcus Stoinis, having hit a six off Curran earlier in the over, couldn’t hit another six needed for a win or the four that would have tied the scores and taken the match into a Super Over.
“I thought the bowlers really came good in the last eight overs,” England captain Eoin Morgan told Sky Sports.
“We managed to get the ball talking a bit, Adil (Rashid) taking those two important wickets to get into that middle order and get it exposed a little bit.”
Meanwhile Finch said either he or Warner should have seen Australia home. “We knew that England were going to keep coming hard and they executed really well,” he said.
“I’d probably be more critical of myself and Davey, who got us off to good start and neither of us pushed on to make a match-winning contribution.”
Finch was soon into his stride with a pulled four off express fast bowler Jofra Archer — playing his first white-ball international since bowling the decisive Super Over in England’s 50-over World Cup final win over New Zealand at Lord’s last year.
And on a ground where he made 156 in a Twenty20 international against England in 2013, Finch struck leg-spinner Adil Rashid — arguably the hosts’ best current T20 bowler — for 14 runs in three balls, with a huge straight six followed by two extra-cover driven fours.
England didn’t take a wicket until the 11th over when Finch was unable to clear Jordan at mid-off after lofting Archer.—AFP
