Cricket World Cup 2019: England handed lesson by Australia in 64-run defeat to damage semi-final hopes

Cricket in any format, at any level is about taking wickets. When Eoin Morgan won the toss and told Australia to bat first in muggy air under leaden skies here at Lord’s wickets were what he had in mind. What he got was a masterclass in how to bat against a new ball. What he saw four hours later was a masterclass of how to bowl with one.

Captain Aaron Finch anchored Australia’s march with the bat with a second hundred of this tournament and a seventh against England. His century stand with David Warner, a fifth on these shores over the last month, set the platform for a 286 total that while under par for what has become the norm in the modern game, from the moment James Vince was castled all over St John’s Wood with the second ball of England’s reply, looked far beyond them.

Fired up by the task at hand and 140 years of cricketing rivalry left arm duo Mitchell Starc and Jason Behrendorff tore in, finding immediate shape where there was none before in searing through the defences of Vince and then Joe Root in a blink.

There really is no substitute for true pace and England had no answer. When a hooking Morgan departed only 35 balls had been bowled and England’s prospects in this match and perhaps this tournament were all but extinguished.

It was a far cry from England’s own opening salvo where Warner once again passed 50 with little fuss as he and Finch saw off Jofra Archer and Chris Woakes with relative ease. It wasn’t without its difficulties with the skipper surviving an LBW review on umpire’s call in the third over, but with the England pair bowling far too short for what was required Australia coolly and calmly set the table before heartily and hungrily tucking in.

This newly circumspect Warner is certainly a peculiar watch but he’s as effective as ever and maneuvered his way to a fifth tournament half century before one with a little more bounce than he expected saw him slice straight to Joe Root at point. He was disgusted with himself as he stomped from the field, knowing he would now be unable to reap what he had so expertly sowed.

At the other end Finch continued untroubled. For a player so painfully bereft of form a few months ago he looked in danger of missing the World Cup entirely, Finch is an altogether different prospect again now, taking the all too readily available twos on offer from a subdued England in the field while pouncing on anything in his arc with the aggression that has made him one of the world’s most feared opening batsmen when on song like this.

With 350 looking a real possibility it was Ben Stokes, as he so often does, who turned the tide. Full, straight and with a bit of nip Usman Khawaja had no response.

Nine and a half overs later Australia were five down as England, buoyed by a reignited crowd, roared back into the game. First Finch, having brought up three figures just a ball before skied aimlessly to third man, his pavilion stomp even more pronounced than Warner’s just half an hour before.

Then Glenn Maxwell did what Glenn Maxwell does, smearing Archer twice violently to the fence before feathering one to Jos Buttler caught behind. The less said about Marcus Stoinis’ farcical 22-yard run out minutes later the better.

Steve Smith, booed to the high heavens by the usually sedate Lord’s crowd, threatened more before departing for an awkward run-a-ball 38. Only 22 from the bats of Alex Carey and Starc from the final two overs eked Australia past 280.

If Jonny Bairstow’s early dismissal, coming so quickly after the three before it, signalled the end, no one told Stokes, who set about righting the ship, this time with bat rather than ball in hand. On one leg after an apparent calf pull Stokes passed 50 for a third time in the tournament undeterred.

If this is to be as good as it gets for this England side, it won’t be on their brutal, brilliant all-rounder. He countered the seemingly inevitable with brute force, twice slapping Stoinis over the midwicket fence, as well as craft before the returning Starc finally removed him in fitting fashion with a vicious yorker for a supremely defiant 89.

His hopes were over as he hobbled back to the pavilion and with him so too were England’s. Time will tell if those for this tournament went with him.