Australia vs England 2013-14: 1st T20 - Finch, White set up Australia win

Aaron Finch and Cameron White celebrate after their 100-run partnership

A high impact performance from Aaron Finch and Cameron White gave Australia a thrilling 13-win over England in the first Twenty20 match at Hobart. A solid start from Finch and White helped Australia post an imposing 213 and a fine bowling performance from Nathan Coulter Nile ensured Australia’s dominance in the current series as England fell short by 13 runs.

After winning the toss, Aaron Finch and Cameron White made use of the wicket perfectly. The surface was good for batting and Finch dominated the England bowlers. He gathered the momentum when he struck a huge six off Broad in the second over and from there on, he was unstoppable. Cameron White, on the other hand, was quite at the non-strikers end for first couple of overs. After he realized the wicket is beautiful for batting, he also started dominating the bowling attack.

The over where Australia gathered the momentum was in the fourth over. Dernbach changed the end, but it did not work out. Finch struck two glorious boundaries through the off-side and it was followed by a huge six over the bowler’s head. He scored 15 runs off the over which forced the England captain Stuart Broad to think out of the box.

Both scored half-centuries and helped Australia to cross the 100-run mark in the 10^th over. The 106-run partnership for the first wicket was finally broken by Stuart Broad when he removed Aaron Finch for 52. Luke Wright then scalped the wicket of White for 75.

After the wicket of White, it was Maxwell who had to attack the opposition. Australia were hoping for Maxwell to stay till the end, but he played a good little-innings off 20 runs off 13 balls. He didn’t lose the momentum and kept rotating the strike initially before playing the big shots. George Bailey also didn’t contribute much as he scored only one boundary in his innings of 14.

It was Chris Lynn who did the damage in the middle order for Australia. He was unbeaten on 37 off just 19 balls, including two fours and three massive sixes. Lynn scored 13 runs off the last over which helped Australia set a stiff target for England, who have been demolished in this tour.

England were heavily reliant on the top ranked T20 batsmen Alex Hales to do the job. Alex Hales played an important role in England’s series leveling win in the second T20 at home last year. Also with Michael Lumb’s prolific form, England camp felt that they had a chance. But that was not the case. England failed to get off to a solid start which in turn added pressure on the middle order to score the runs.

Michael Lumb departed in the second over for 9, and Luke Wright was dismissed by Moises Henriques for 9 to leave England wobbling at 44/2 in the fifth over. Subsequently England kept losing wickets at regular intervals and none of the batsmen was able to convert his start into a big score with the exception of Ravi Bopara.

If Ravi Bopara was set, at least one proper batsmen should have given him company. Jos Buttler is capable of striking the ball well and could be a dangerous batsman in the last five overs. If he would have stayed with Ravi Bopara, England would have fancied their chances. If England can get closer to Australia’s target of 213 with one batsman, why can’t they chase down if they had two settled batsmen? It would have been a great run-chase, England failed to seize the opportunity and finally ended up losing by a 13-run margin.

The way England batsmen approached in the first T20 gives us a clear indication that they have good strikers who can be dangerous in the last five overs. What Australia did cleverly was they didn’t allow them to settle down.