ICC Champions Trophy 2017, England vs. Australia: 5 Talking Points

#2 Mark Wood and Adil Rashid’s spells lead the English fight back

Adil Rashid ripped through the Australian lower order

Mark Wood and Adil Rashid were exceptional for England with their bowling on Saturday as each of them picked up a 4-for against the mighty Australians. Wood was brilliant as he exploited the overcast conditions perfectly extracting swing and seam off the surface. His victims included that of David Warner, Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell and Adam Zampa.

The delivery with which he claimed Warner’s wicket was absolutely fantastic. The ball pitched on good length and extracted extra bounce along with swing to induce an edge of Warner’s willow and land straight into the gloves of Jos Buttler. He ended up with bowling figures of 10-1-33-4 and it turned out to be the best bowling performance by an English bowler in Champions Trophy history.

Rashid, on the other hand, showed his worth today after being kept out of the first game of the tournament. He bowled beautifully in the death overs and made the difference between what could have been a 300+ total and the original score of 277/9.

He picked up the wickets of Mathew Wade (2) and Mitchell Starc (0) in the 44th over of the innings and then again accounted for the wicket of Pat Cummins (4) in the 46th over. He had also claimed the wicket of Moises Henriques (17) earlier in the innings. He ended up with a terrific bowling spell of 10-1-41-4.