England will hope to turn things around and level the T20I series against Australia when the two sides meet in the second and final
match at Chester-le-Street. It was Aaron Finch’s evening on Thursday
with the right-handed top-order batsman spanking the English bowlers to all parts of the ground for a record-breaking
156. It was a knock laced with 14 sixes and 11 fours and carried him to
the highest ever score in T20Is and the team to the second-best ever in
this format. England batted well in reply despite losing all those
early wickets of Alex Hales, Eoin
Morgan and Luke Wright but were never in the hunt. Joe Root’s unbeaten
90 after been spanked on his helmet and Jade Dernbach’s 3/34 in his four
overs were the two highlights of the English effort.
Captain Stuart Broad said his team did all that they could and hailed the way Finch
went about his business. What England will now need to do is to ensure
they can overcome their poor bowling effort from the first game and try
and restrict Finch’s batting. What could help is if the pitch at Chester-le-Street isn’t as flat as the one at the Rose Bowl.
While it makes sense to make a T20I game laden in favour of the
batsmen, what’s also important is for it to not break a bowler down
completely. England selected Jonny Briggs over James Tredwell, which was
bit of a strange move but one that did not pay. Briggs did get a wicket
but conceded 51 in his four overs and could well be consigned to the
bench. Off-spinner Tredwell has a happy knack of picking up wickets and
he should get a game here.
Australia will not want to change
too much in their line-up. They got the runs and while they leaked with
the ball, much like their English opponents, they were never in danger
of losing the game. Fawad Ahmed’s international debut wasn’t the best he
would have imagined but he can be pardoned for his showing given the
flat nature of the surface and the run-chase. The hosts should come back
strongly in this game, but Australia have the fire-power in their side –
likes of Dave Warner, Shaun Marsh and Shane Watson can all bludgeon
best of attacks out of the park in this format.
Match Timings: Aug 31, 2013 (14:30 local | 13:30 GMT | 19:00 IST)
TeamsEngland (probable) 1 Michael Carberry, 2 Michael Lumb, 3 Luke Wright, 4 Eoin Morgan, 5 Joe Root, 6 Ravi Bopara, 7 Jos Buttler (wk), 8 Stuart Broad (capt), 9 James Tredwell, 10 Steven Finn, 11 Jade Dernbach.
Australia (probable) 1 David Warner, 2 Aaron Finch, 3 Shaun Marsh, 4 Shane Watson, 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 George Bailey (capt), 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 James Faulkner, 9 Mitchell Johnson, 10 Josh Hazlewood, 11 Fawad Ahmed.