ICC CWC 2019: Warm Ups: Australia edge past hosts to begin on a positive note

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Image Courtesy: ESPNcricinfo

Australia kicked off their World Cup preparations in fine fashion beating the hosts England in their first warm up match.

Image Courtesy: ESPNcricinfo

Steve Smith marked his return to international cricket in fine fashion by scoring a century as Australia edged past England to begin the world cup preparations on a positive note..

Australia who were put into bat by the hosts did not really dictate the terms but kept the scoreboard moving steadily. The whole innings saw just 2 significant partnerships, firstly with Warner and Marsh which was followed by Smith and Khawaja.

Each of Warner, Khawaja and Marsh got starts but couldn’t go on to convert them to a huge score. Smith hung in with the incoming batsmen to score a century on his first game for Australia after the suspension. A quickfire 30 from Alex Carey propelled Australia’s score to 297/9 in their quota of 50 overs.

England played out a similar innings as that of their counterparts, failing to convert their starts and losing wickets at regular intervals. Buttler and James Vince joined hands at 100/3 and threatened to take the game away from Australia.

Both of them recorded their individual 50’s but their wickets eventually provoked a collapse. Woakes hung in their till the end scoring a valiant 40 to keep the side’s hopes alive. But his run out in the 48th over proved to be the final nail in the coffin as England surrendered to a 12 run defeat.
Australia 297 for 9 (Smith 116, Warner 43, Plunkett 4-69) beat England 285 all out (Vince 64, Buttler 52, Behrendorff 2-43) by 12 runs.

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