Taylor stitches a fighting 98 as England come down with 'yellow fever'
Aaron Finch smashed a sparkling century as Australia dealt England a 111-run humiliation in their World Cup opener at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday.
Aaron Finch smashed a sparkling century as Australia dealt England a 111-run humiliation in their World Cup opener at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday.
Here are the highlights of the match in pics:
Australia Innings
James Anderson's ball swung in sharply towards Aaron Finch's pads in the first over of the match. He flicked it towards square leg but straight to Chris Woakes' hands. The tall fielder jumped and misjudged as the ball passed through his hands. Finch was not even off the mark when he was dropped.
It all looked good for Australia with England's horrible fielding helping their cause. But Stuart Broad came up with two brilliant deliveries in his fourth over, both resulting in wickets. David Warner and Shane Watson (for a golden duck) were sent back to the pavilion in the seventh over of the match. However, Broad missed his hat-trick with Steven Smith defending the next delivery - a nasty yorker.
While his partners were departing for meagre scores, Finch dropped anchor and kept the score board ticking. After getting dropped early in the innings, Finch eventually cut loose and went on to score a scintillating century, the 2015 Cricket World Cup’s first.
Finch was ably supported by George Bailey as Australia's innings took shape. After losing the first three wickets, Australia needed a solid partnership to avoid a batting collapse and the Bailey-Finch provided just that.
After a 146-run fourth-wicket partnership which pulled Australia out of the trouble, both Finch and Bailey departed in quick succession. However, a rampant Glenn Maxwell and all-rounder Mitchell Marsh kept the momentum going.
After Finch and Bailey departed, Maxwell started doing what he does best - giving the finishing touches. After a quite ten balls, Mitchell Marsh also joined in on the madness. Both of them were involved in a 53-run partnership which included several boundaries.
After the initial three-wicket burst, English bowlers lost the momentum with the last ten overs almost turning into a carnage. Anderson, Steven Finn, Broad and Woakes leaked runs like a broken tap with Maxwell and Brad Haddin making full use of the short-pitched deliveries to further enhance the already daunting total.
Probably the least useful hat-trick of this World Cup. Of the last three balls of the Australian innings, Finn took a hat-trick. All the three wickets were catches.
England innings
Ali, Ballance 10-run twins and the collapse
Both Moeen Ali and Gary Ballance were dismissed cheaply. Strangely, both were out after scoring 10 runs off balls. Saturday the 13th?
Nothing much can be written about the rest of the English innings as they fell apart like a pack of cards one after the other, except for James Taylor's unbeaten 98.
Finally, it's a daunting win for...
For all other stats and scores, here is the scorecard of the match:
SCORECARD
