Australia managed to best England by 28 runs in the T20I series opener played at Southampton on Wednesday thanks to some splendid batting by their opener Travis Head, who was able to give his team a competitive score.
Batting first, Travis Head top scored with 59 from just 23 balls of which, 29 had come in the uniforms of the England Bowler focusing to compete for the win head justified his motivating wish to relieve some of the pressure from the English bowlers.
“It is good to go up straight. You may be having the learnabilities to score and not less than that.” Travis Head stated after the game. “The wickets in Scotland were quite different. We were looking to take the strike on the ball. Guys have been together for a couple of years now.”
During the course of the innings, he took particularly aggressive action against Sam Curran whom he hit for 30 runs in one over in that particular part of the innings.
“I am supposed to bat how I want and whenever I want and I am bowled over by my coach and captain. Every ball Bowled I aim for a six Khan said” he replied Head.
The other first major contributor to Australia’s total was Matthew Short (albeit with the impressive figures of 41 from 26 balls) Head’s first wicket also paved the way for an opening partnership of 86 in the first six overs of power play which was built by Short who did not travel for the Scotland series.
Australia was held down in the middle overs of their innings by the leg-spin of England’s Adil Rashid (1 for 23) and Liam Livingstone (3 for 22) spinners. England would have benefitted when fast bowlers Jofra Archer (2 for 31) and Saqib Mahmood (2 for 21) decimated the tail because poor shot selection was the order of the day with the Australians.
Australia scored 118 for the loss of two wickets in the mid-innings but then fell apart in dramatic fashion, losing eight wickets in 61 runs after the end of the drinks break.
37 runs was what the was all that Josh Inglis could come with to keep the score relevant for Australia, but Livingstone brought Short, Marcus Stoinis (10), and Tim David (0) in quick succession for Australia to be struggling at 132 for 5 in the thirteenth over.
However, they failed to chase that and in 19.2 overs lasted and made only 151.
For Australia pacers, Josh Hazlewood and Sean Abbott took two and three wickets and Adam Zampa, the leg-spinner also got two.
