A fresh-faced England side came undone against a more storied Australian XI, falling to a 28-run defeat in the first T20I on Wednesday.
The hosts fielded three T20I debutants – Jamie Overton, Jordan Cox and Jacob Bethell – but three significant figures in the Australian game wrote the story. To begin with, there was the thunder of Travis Head, his 23-ball 59 setting an imposing target of 180 that could have been even stronger had England not enjoyed a resurgence through spin.
When it came to the reply, Adam Zampa’s tweak proved difficult to navigate, his leggies choking up the middle overs and accounting for two wickets. When England finally found hope, with Liam Livingstone crunching a few to get himself to 37, Josh Hazlewood, that towering quick, knocked the stumps to make it 108 for six in the 14th over. Joy for this new England setup will have to wait another day.
Much has changed since the last time Australia’s white-ball team visited England, during the lockdown summer of four years ago. Back then the hosts were the ones to follow, Eoin Morgan’s band of 50-over world-beaters still happily ticking along, Aaron Finch’s men the ones looking to prove themselves. Australia have since won two World Cups to become the short-form experts. In Southampton they carried that alpha energy as Head, that moustachioed Ahmedabad party pooper, opened up a week on from a cool 25-ball 80 against Scotland.
Head taking on Jofra Archer was an early thrill, the quick making the left-hander hop about, edge away, and look uncomfortable. But this is Head’s great trick: to deceive you with that slogger setup, revealing his flaws, only then to respond with a flurry of axe-swings, the eyes Âcarrying the hands. And then, all of a sudden, he’s won you the match and tournament, too.
The southpaw put four dominant Archer deliveries to the side and responded with three boundaries in the quick’s second over. But the real brutality was reserved for Sam Curran, the all-rounder searching for rhythm in internationals after a difficult couple of World Cups and left out of the squad for the one-dayers next week. Head wasn’t going to offer him a cuddle and words of affirmation. Thirty runs came off Curran’s first over, every ball a boundary, his arms free to thrash the ball square of the wicket. A monster pull off Saqib Mahmood took Head to a 19-ball half-century.
The final ball of the powerplay saw Head finally relent, with Jordan Cox holding on at deep square leg off Mahmood, the opener’s destruction having taken Australia to 86 for one after six overs. With the ball running nicely on to the blade of the other opener, Matt Short, Australia were ascendant.
Fortunately for Phil Salt, the stand-in captain, there was joy to be found in slowing the game down. Spin ended Australia’s hopes for a genuinely scary total, first through Adil Rashid, England’s most experienced player by a distance.
His leg-break slid on to dismiss Mitch Marsh for two before Liam Livingstone capitalised on a sweeping epidemic among the visitors: Short found Curran at deep backward square, Marcus Stoinis missed a reverse to fall leg-before, Tim David’s conventional attempt led to a first-baller. Jacob Bethell got a go with his left-arm variety but the elder tweakers did the job. Inside 13 overs, Australia had been reduced to 132 for five.
The quicks, after their early misery, returned to provide a lights show. Curran’s slower ball accounted for Josh Inglis’s stumps; Archer put himself on a hat-trick, his second wicket a fizzing yorker. Mahmood, playing his first international in 18 months, went full to rattle Cameron Green’s stumps. Head’s brutal beginning had been forgotten.
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But Australia’s final total still looked pretty at 179, turning even finer as Josh Hazlewood ran in for his usual red-ball nip in the white-ball game. He had the early wicket of Will Jacks and Cox, in at three, inside-edging to the boundary with consecutive deliveries.
Cox’s first international innings didn’t last much longer, however, ended by a stunning David catch. The leg-side swat from Cox off Xavier Bartlett saw the ball fly high but the fielder’s eyes stuck to it as the legs raced in from mid-on to midwicket, the sliding effort ending the batter’s stay on 17.
Salt, like Head, perished at the end of the powerplay, placing the ball perfectly into Short’s hands at deep backward square, but England had been unable to inflict any serious carnage; at 46 for three, their platform was relatively minimal.
And in the same way Rashid offers England a guarantee of guile, Australia have Adam Zampa. His usual stump-to-stump mayhem meant Bethell’s first England knock was limited to a six-ball two. At 52 for four, the game had gone, Australia’s to secure with ease. Livingstone briefly offered another story, that of an inspired all-round display, but Hazlewood returned to prompt a drag-on.
