Melbourne: Co-hosts Australia hammered their way to 342/9 in their cricket World Cup opener against England at the historic Melbourne Cricket Ground here Saturday.
Opening batsman Aaron Finch (135) guided the four-time World Champions to the mammoth total with his sixth century. He got good support from skipper George Bailey (55) and all-rounder Glenn Maxwell (66).
This is the second highest total at the MCG, with the highest being 344/8 by the ICC World XI against Asia XI in January 2005.
England pacer Steven Finn picked up 5/71, with the 2015 World Cup’s first hat-trick coming in the last three deliveries of the innings.
Put in to bat, Australia got off to a good start with David Warner (22) and Finch scoring at a good pace. However, two back-to-back wickets of Warner and Shane Watson (0) off pace bowler Stuart Broad brought down the scoring rate.
Australia received another jolt when in-form Steven Smith (5) was bowled by medium pacer Chris Woakes, reducing them for 70/3 in the 11th over.
However, thereon Finch struck a significant 146-run fourth-wicket partnership with skipper Bailey to steady Australia’s ship. Finch hammered 12 boundaries and three sixes in his 128-ball innings.
After the duo got out, Maxwell continued the run, smashing 11 boundaries all over the ground in his 40-ball innings.
Lower down the order, Mitchell Marsh and wicketkeeper batsman Brad Haddin chipped in with 23 and 31, respectively.
Finn’s hat-trick at the end brought some smiles across the English faces but their batsmen have a huge task ahead as history shows that Australia have never lost after scoring 300-plus runs while batting first. (IANS)
Score board
Australia
Warner b Broad 22
Finch run out (Morgan) 135
Watson c Buttler b Broad 0
Smith b Woakes 5
Bailey b Finn 55
Maxwell c Root b Finn 66
Marsh c Root b Finn 23
Haddin c Broad b Finn 31
Johnson c Anderson b Finn 0
Starc not out 0
Total (9 wkts, 50 overs) 342
Fall of wickets: 1-57, 2-57, 3-70, 4-216, 5-228, 6-281, 7-342, 8-342, 9-342
Bowling: Anderson 10-0-67-0, Broad 10-0-66-2, Woakes 10-0-65-1, Finn 10-0-71-5, Ali 9-0-60-0, Root 1-0-11-0.
England
Moeen Ali c Bailey b Starc 10
Ian Bell c Starc b Marsh 36
Gary Ballance c Finch b Marsh 10
Joe Root c Haddin b Marsh 5
Eoin Morgan c Haddin b Marsh 0
James Taylor not out 98
Jos Butler c Smith b Marsh 10
Woakes c Smith b Johnson 37
Stuart Broad b Starc 0
Steven Finn c&b Johnson 1
Anderson run out (Maxwell) 8
Total (all out; 41.5 overs) 231
Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-49, 3-66, 4-66, 5-73, 6-92, 7-184, 8-194, 9-195, 10-231.
Bowling: Mitchell Starc 9-1-47-2, Josh Hazlewood 6.5-0-45-0, Mitchell Johnson 8-0-36-2, Mitchell Marsh 9-0-33-5, Shane Watson 3-0-13-0, Glenn Maxwell 4-0-33-0, Steven Smith 2-0-19-0.
