| Third Twenty20 worldwide, Ageas Bowl |
| England 145-6 (20 overs): Bairstow 55 (44), Zampa 2-34 |
| Australia 146-5 (19.Three overs): M Marsh 39* (36), Finch 39 (26), Rashid 3-21 |
| Australia received by five wickets, England received collection 2-1 |
| Scorecard |
Australia inched previous a sloppy England with three balls to spare to say a comfort victory within the ultimate match of the Twenty20 collection on the Ageas Bowl.
Chasing 146, the vacationers wanted 60 from 60 balls with eight wickets in hand, solely to tease a repeat of their capitulation within the collection opener.
They misplaced three wickets for 14 runs, all to the wonderful Adil Rashid, earlier than Mitchell Marsh restored calm with 39 not out to provide Australia a five-wicket win.
England did themselves no favours by dropping three catches and making quite a few ground-fielding errors, whereas earlier a batting line-up lacking Jos Buttler and Eoin Morgan was restricted to 145-6 by some wonderful Australia bowling.
Jonny Bairstow made 55 from 44 balls and stand-in captain Moeen Ali and Joe Denly performed cameos, however England have been by no means fluent in opposition to an assault spearheaded by Mitchell Starc.
England win the collection 2-1, though they handed up the possibility to switch Australia on the prime of the Worldwide Cricket Council rankings and file their first 3-Zero whitewash in a house T20 collection.
This match was the final bio-secure, behind-closed-doors fixture to be performed in Southampton this summer time, with these sides now transferring to Emirates Previous Trafford for 3 one-day internationals, the primary of which is on Friday.
Second-string England second greatest
Not solely was the normally highly effective England batting lacking the injured Morgan and rested Buttler, but in addition Jason Roy and Ben Stokes, to not point out the ostracised Alex Hales.
With out them, the hosts by no means received occurring a floor getting used for the third time. This was England’s slowest begin to an innings for the reason that T20 World Cup in 2016.
That was primarily due to the management of size of Starc, bowling in extra of 90mph, and his recalled new-ball accomplice Josh Hazlewood. Fellow tempo bowler Kane Richardson and spinners Adam Zampa and Ashton Agar ensured there was no weak hyperlink within the Australia assault.
Slashing and hacking, Bairstow had solely 9 from 16 balls, however when he did discover the groove he scored 44 from his subsequent 25, together with three sixes off the spinners.
Nonetheless, a prime edge off Agar was properly held by the bowler, who ran to the sting of the 30-yard circle to take the catch at mid-wicket.
Moeen, the 93rd man to captain England in any type of cricket, hit a flowing straight six off leg-spinner Zampa earlier than sweeping the identical bowler to deep mid-wicket, the place Steve Smith held an exquisite boundary catch that required him to throw the ball up and maintain it once more after his heel had been millimetres from the rope.
Denly edged and inside-edged three successive fours off Richardson, however that was the closest England got here to late acceleration.
Australia come by means of one other wobble
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Australia had not performed any cricket earlier than this collection since March and it confirmed within the first two matches. They surrendered the primary from a successful place and wilted on the finish of the second.
They have been very good for almost all of this match, notably their bowling and catching, however once more threatened to throw it away after a fast begin to their chase.
Matthew Wade, Aaron Finch and Marcus Stoinis had Australia in management, Finch befitting from the primary and worst of England’s drops, when keeper Bairstow didn’t get a glove on a skied prime edge off Rashid.
Rashid, although, was nonetheless in a position to rattle the vacationers, first by having Glenn Maxwell reverse-sweep to quick third man, then bowling Finch with a magical googly and at last persuading Smith to current a tame return catch.
Marsh, enjoying for the primary time within the collection, was the beneficiary of the opposite two drops, off edges from Denly and Rashid respectively. Each have been put down by Dawid Malan at slip, one made more durable due to a deflection off Bairstow.
Amid rising pressure, the equation moved out to 34 from 30 deliveries earlier than Marsh nailed a six and a 4 from a Mark Wooden over to place Australia again in cost.
With Agar offering ready help, Australia finally solely wanted a single off the over, which Marsh scrambled from Chris Jordan’s third supply.
