Australia v England T20 World Cup UK media reaction: Aussies ‘stripped of all dignity’
Nothing to do with the Ashes? Tell that to every England fan that played witness to the absolute destruction of Australia at the T20 World Cup. The UK media is having a field day.
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Don’t ever, ever feel sorry for Australian cricketers, but it was damned hard not to in Dubai this balmy night. Eoin Morgan’s breathtakingly efficient team stripped the old enemy of every last vestige of dignity.
They blew them away with the ball, and then pummelled them with the bat. England’s performances against West Indies and Bangladesh were near- immaculate, but for sheer ferocity of purpose this was on another level.
It was all-out aggression of a sort that Australia specialise in themselves but they did not like being on the other end of it, especially the contempt with which their vaunted fast men were treated.
The spinners were not spared either as England motored towards the T20 World Cup knockouts amid raucous cheers of their supporters, who were out in good number.
Jos Buttler, who masterminded the chasing of a paltry target of 126 with a masterly unbeaten 71 from 32 balls that included five sixes and five fours, started off with Jason Roy skipping around the crease to put the bowlers off their lengths, but they soon switched into six-hitting mode. Roy put Pat Cummins in the stands, Buttler did so to Mitchell Starc twice in two balls, and Buttler and Jonny Bairstow both hit two sixes apiece off Adam Zampa, with one of Buttler’s travelling 102 metres. Ashton Agar copped it too.
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AUSSIES ON LIFE SUPPORT
Such was the speed of Australia’s defeat - with eight wickets and a staggering 50 balls to spare after England’s powerplay score of 66-0 set a new mark for this tournament - that by the end of the night their net run-rate was on life-support.
The batting was spectacular but really, as was the case with England’s two earlier wins, the game was shaped by the bowlers.
In this instance, the stand-out hero was Chris Woakes. After England had won an important toss and chose to bowl first on a greenish-looking pitch, Woakes barely put a delivery out of place during a stunning opening passage of play in which he delivered a powerplay spell of 3-0-7-2. He was well backed up by Chris Jordan, who ended the innings with the best figures of three for 17.
Woakes removed David Warner with his second ball of the night as the left-hander advanced down the pitch in an effort to cover any movement, but was still unable to prevent an outswinger taking his outside edge.
WARNER AND SMITH CRUMBLE
Adil Rashid had taken the first over of the innings but with Steve Smith now at the crease at No 3, the captain Eoin Morgan turned to Jordan. He gave Smith a ball of significant width with his first delivery, which the Australia batsman tried to fetch to the leg side. All he could do was toe-end it high to mid-on, where Woakes leapt high and, back arched, held on to a breathtaking left-handed catch tumbling backwards.
Glenn Maxwell, in a place too high at No 4, thrives on boundaries but he was given nothing to hit and, so, by the late stages of Woakes’s next over, he could not resist driving hard only to be beaten on the inside edge by a ball angled in.
Shocked by the opening exchanges, Australia struggled to acquire any momentum until Finch was joined first by Agar, who swung Woakes for two sixes, and then Cummins, who drilled Mills for two more. As a result, 43 were added in three overs, but when Finch tried to get in on the big-hitting act he holed out off Jordan for a patient 44 from 49 balls. Jordan then cleaned up Cummins and a small fire had been quickly extinguished.
Interestingly, Morgan resisted the temptation to bowl Moeen Ali, who in earlier games had done so brilliantly against opposing left-handers.
Now, the England captain clearly felt he had better plans to pursue. It certainly seemed that England had done their homework on the Australian batsmen. In place of Ali, Livingstone got through four overs for the first time for England - for only 15 runs, another eyebrow-raising fact in a game full of them.
THE THRASHES - THE SUN
John Etheridge
Nothing to do with the Ashes, eh? Tell that to every single England supporter who watched this demolition job on the Aussies.England did not just beat Australia in the Twenty20 World Cup here - they absolutely destroyed and humiliated them.
Eoin Morgan’s team were brilliant with the ball and then Jos Buttler, Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow pulverised the Aussie bowlers.
It added up to a victory by eight wickets with 8.2 overs to spare and England joined Pakistan as the only teams with three wins out of three in the Super 12s phase.
Buttler hit successive sixes off Mitchell Starc that both carried onto the top deck of the stand, measured at 94 metres and 95 metres.
He bettered even that with a rocket-launch off leg-spinner Adam Zampa that carried for 102 metres.
It was a wonderful exhibition of ball-striking, a devastating mixture of power, timing and self-belief.
Buttler finished with 71 not out from 32 balls. Don’t forget he will be a key member of England’s Ashes squad, now he has agreed to go. Of course this will give him a surge of confidence for what lies ahead.
Roy earlier registered 92 metres on the slugger scale with a blow over mid-wicket off Cummins.
Even Bairstow got into the act with a couple of sixes off Zampa. It was astonishing stuff, battering the Aussies as if they were a bunch of clubbies.
For a first confrontation with the old enemy this winter, it could not have gone better. And it will surely have a slight impact on the thoughts of David Warner and Steve Smith, who managed just two runs between them.
And the way Australia’s likely Test bowlers Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Cummins were treated with such disdain will certainly please Joe Root.
England thrash Australia by EIGHT wickets - Daily Mail
The last time England’s T20 team treated Australia with this much contempt, they used the result as a springboard to win the Ashes.
That was way back in 2005 at Southampton, when Ricky Ponting’s side were bundled out for 79. And if the leap from Dubai to Brisbane is a big one, then Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins did confess before this game, with the urn in mind, that it would be ‘great to get one on the board’ against the old enemy.
To the delight, no doubt, of two England captains — not just Eoin Morgan but Test skipper Joe Root, watching from afar — the Australians did not get a look-in.
England’s bowlers denied their opponents any oxygen, before Jos Buttler’s six-filled 71 not out off 32 balls took them home by eight wickets with 50 — yes, 50 — deliveries to spare. In Dubai’s Ring of Fire, they were quite simply incendiary.
Australia exposed in crushing defeat - The Guardian
If you wish for something hard enough, according to some self-help books based upon little more than the songwriting of Pinocchio, it just might come true. So went the script in the T20 World Cup, but the wrong way for Australia: a team relying on a Test configuration that was undone at the start by England’s Test‑style bowling.
Australia had changed their side, bringing in the left-arm spinner Ashton Agar down the order in the place of first drop Mitchell Marsh, which meant Glenn Maxwell was sent in against pace during the Powerplay rather than coming in later against spin, something that had worked so well in the recent Indian Premier League.
Australia were 15 for three after 23 balls and Woakes would send down another blameless over for two for seven after his first three.That was pretty much all she wrote for Australia, who ended the Powerplay 21 for three, then immediately lost Marcus Stoinis lbw to a Rashid googly to go four wickets down.
Rarely would you see a match between the top two sides in a World Cup group that was over so early.
“The Australians, never playing as a group, and expecting to turn things on against world-class teams – that’s a question that I’ve been asking for the last 10 or 12 years. It doesn’t make sense,” said the country’s former T20 champion Shane Watson on commentary.
“When you come against a team that has every base covered, like England, that’s when teams do get exposed.”
On this exhibition, there was no room to disagree.
GOAT AIR: PLAN REVEALED TO SHIELD TEST STARS FROM COVID RISK
Two teams of first-class cricketers will fly ‘GOAT Air’ in a bid to bubble wrap Australia’s most precious Ashes assets.
NSW and Victorian players will travel by charter plane to Melbourne and live under tight bio-security measures next week, for the sole purpose of protecting Nathan Lyon and other Test players from risk before the Ashes.
Officials are leaving no stone unturned in making sure nothing jeopardises the safe passage of crucial spinner Lyon (nicknamed GOAT) and other potential Ashes hopefuls like Sean Abbott, Will Pucovski and Marcus Harris from getting across the Queensland border to prepare for the first Test.
Victoria is still recording daily Covid case numbers in excess of 1600 and although Cricket Australia has exemptions for Test players to be able to enter Queensland to quarantine, they’re taking the extra steps to safeguard against any potential exposure to the virus which could impact plans.
Blues and Bushranger players are being praised for the sacrifices they’re making to protect the Test alumni among them, but there was a determination across the board to get to Melbourne by charter so the match could be played at the MCG.
Not only does it help MCG curators in their mission to get the conditions right for Boxing Day, but the Test players get crucial practice playing on a Test wicket rather than another suburban venue.
Test players like Lyon will ultimately head to Queensland to coincide with the Australian T20 team’s return from the World Cup in Dubai, and the whole squad will be allowed to quarantine and train together.
The exception will be the likes of captain Tim Paine and all-rounder Cameron Green who will be likely flying from ‘clean states’ and won’t need to quarantine at all in Queensland.
Lyon has already made sacrifices of his own to ensure NSW and Victoria could get their respective Sheffield Shield seasons underway, and even billeted two teammates at his home during the Sydney lockdown.
Teammates Daniel Hughes and Liam Hatcher were living in restricted LGA’s which would have prevented them from training at NSW’s home base at Sydney Olympic Park, so Lyon offered up his couch and spare room in the interests of keeping team training going.
NSW and Victorian players in Melbourne will still be allowed to eat outside at venues, but will be discouraged from socializing in indoor environments.
STAR COMMENTATORS HIGHLIGHT DOUBLE STANDARD
Australia might have been a nation founded on convicts, but in the commentary box it’s the English who are set to be locked in leg irons ahead of the Ashes.
Test legends Shane Warne and Michael Vaughan are both due to fly out from the United Kingdom to call the summer action on Fox Cricket, yet as it stands the former England captain will be escorted straight to quarantine while the King of Spin is set free.
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Warne is arriving back in Australia in early November to take advantage of the NSW Government’s landmark switch to no quarantine, but a different set of rules apply for Vaughan and fellow Fox Star and England cricket great, Isha Guha.
Vaughan and Guha both have travel exemptions to get into Australia, are fully vaccinated and are arriving from the same country as Warne — yet as an example of the bizarre inconsistencies of Covid are bracing to be forced into two weeks hotel quarantine because the no quarantine policy is only open to Australians and direct relatives.
It’s a bitter pill to swallow, especially when commentary colleague Warne can fly the exact same route and be allowed to head straight from the airport to the pub for a beer.
Fox Cricket executives are desperately hoping for a resolution for Vaughan and Guha.
“It’s interesting that Michael and Isha have been granted a travel exemption and are coming from exactly the same country as Shane — yet would have to do 14 days quarantine. It’s a bit of a mystery to all of us,” said Fox Cricket boss, Matt Weiss.
“We’ll leave it to the authorities to sort out but let’s hope it does resolve before Michael and Isha arrive and common sense prevails.
“We’re not arguing with it but we’d love it to be resolved.”
Warne’s saloon passage into Australia doesn’t guarantee he will be able to get to the first Ashes Test at the Gabba however, with Fox making the decision not to put their commentators through domestic quarantine wherever possible.
West Australians Adam Gilchrist, Mike Hussey, Kath Loughlin and Queenslander Allan Border are Fox’s locked in team for the first Test, and if other commentators make it north to be on the ground it will be a bonus.
If Queensland’s border opening to NSW and Victoria comes earlier than the first Test start on December 8, then the likes of Warne, Mark Waugh and Kerry O’Keeffe will be rushed to the Test — otherwise there will be a team calling from the studios in Sydney.
There is some hope the NSW Government might change their policy excluding English arrivals from no quarantine before Vaughan and Guha arrive, but if it remains unchanged it’s possible Fox will try and get their star duo to quarantine in Queensland.
That would kill two birds with the one stone and at least allow Vaughan and Guha to strengthen the on-ground team at the Gabba.
Channel 7 would be facing similar hurdles trying to get England great Ian Botham out from the UK and on the road for their Ashes coverage.
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