And so it came to pass. Having run England desperately close in Adelaide Australia deservedly brought England’s record breaking run of victories to an end in a match that wasn’t quite as close as the final margin suggested.
As so often with Twenty20 this was a game of fine margins, but there can be little doubt that the better side on the night won. Having got off to a flying start, Australia were reined in extremely effectively by England’s spinners but Aaron Finch, a slightly surprising choice for the side, more than justified his selection with an effective and, occasionally, brutal innings that first rebuilt the Australian effort and then hauled it to a competitive total. Much of Australia’s other batting was surprisingly tentative with four of the nine batsmen recording strike rates of under a hundred but Finch’s fifty-three from thirty-three balls would, ultimately, prove decisive.
England would have felt confident of overhauling Australia’s one hundred and forty seven and got off to a decent start through Bell and Davies but the middle order failed, with Morgan surprisingly lacking in fluency, in the face of another superb spell from Shane Watson and some effective stuff from Mitchell Johnson. At 113-6 England looked dead and buried, but sensible batting from Bresnan and the impressive Woakes, coupled with a crass five wides from Tait in the penultimate over, took them into the final over with at least an outside chance, needing eighteen. Brett Lee, however, held his nerve and, in spite of a huge six from Woakes, the result was never really in doubt.
England can take heart from having had the opportunity to blood some new players and, in particular, from the promise shown by Chris Woakes, while Australia will be delighted to have won and with the success of Finch and Watson in particular. In this form of the game the two sides look pretty well matched – we shall see what happens in the fifty over series.
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