 Australia marched in to the finals of the Champions Trophy after defeating
England by nine wickets with 49 balls still remaining, at the Centurion on Friday
night. And the feeling to lose to Australia in an ODI was not new to England,
though worse this time, given the fact that it was Champions Trophy semi-final.
Despite having won the toss and electing to bat first, England could not make
much out of the opportunity. Considering the fact that it was a batting pitch,
their batsmen did them in, except for Bresnan who scored 80 off 76 balls. They
were punished first by the Australian seamers and then by their batsmen.
The Oz seamers were extra ordinary in their performance as they kept getting important
breakthroughs for their side and England managed to crawl up to a descent score
of 257 in 47.4 overs. Also the fielders did a good job by keeping it as stringent
as possible for England to score boundaries and sixes. Tim Bresnan (80
off 76 balls) and Luke Wright (48 off 68 balls) were the only wall for
England and contributed 107 in partnership to lead their team to a respectable
total but did not know Australia will pounce on them harder and win by such a
good margin.
After Tim Paine fell to Graham Onions for four in second over, skipper
Ricky Ponting joined Shane Watson to single-handedly steer the team into
finals. Within ten overs Ponting had struck seven boundaries and the 258 target
seemed low for the Aussies. The required run rate was 5.39 per over, but Aussies
were a step ahead scoring at a rate of 6.16 runs per over. Had they batted first,
the target would have been much higher than what England posted before them.
It was a delight to watch Ponting cross the benchmark of 12,000 runs, as he became
the first Australian and only third batsmen to do so after Sanath Jayasurya
and Sachin Tendulkar, with his brilliant knock of 111 runs from 115 balls
out of which 11 were boundaries and included a six.
To support the skipper, Shane Watson, who was adjudged the Player of the
match, readily contributed 136 off 132 balls which included as many as seven sixes
and ten boundaries. He also played a formidable innings striking an alarming partnership
of 252 in 41 overs with Ponting to lead his team to a thumping win.
Ponting was certainly a happy man after the match and said that from the start
of the England series, his team was focusing on being well prepared for
the Champions Trophy and was aiming at being in a position where they could play
their best their best cricket whenever needed. He added that Australian cricket
prides itself on standing up at big moments and that the team has done by winning
the match in the way they did.
Australia has advanced to the finals, and awaits either Pakistan or New Zealand
in the final face-off which will be decided today, as Pakistan and NZ take on
each other in the second semi-final of the Champions Trophy.
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