Australia vs. England, 2nd T20: Date, Time, Live Stream, TV Info and Preview

Australia head into the second T20 on Friday with a 1-0  lead over England after winning the first T20 by 13 runs. A win will hand them yet another series victory over England.

Venue: Melbourne Cricket Ground

Commences: Friday, Jan. 31, 2014

Start time: 8:35 a.m. GMT (7:35 p.m. local)

Live on: Sky Sports 2

Weather: Accuweather forecasts sunny weather of up to 31 degrees Celsius. There might be a few sprinklings of rain, but not enough to ruin the game. 

Overview

After three months, the same old theme continues for England. Having made sloppy errors and got well behind the game in the first T20, they lost the match and now find themselves a game down and in a must-win situation if they hope to salvage anything from the T20s.

Australia's opening pair of Aaron Finch and Cameron White were brutally destructive in their batting in the first game, putting on a 106-run partnership to set the foundation for a solid total of 213-4. Chris Lynn played a handy knock lower down the order and, overall, Australia once again outplayed England in every aspect.

England's chase was littered with errors from the top order and were it not for a late surge from Ravi Bopara, the visitors wouldn't even have made it to the 200-run mark. Australia's bowlers leaked too many runs in the latter part of the innings which is no doubt something they'll have worked on prior to the second T20.

Rajanish Kakade/Associated Press

Australia have called up Brad Hodge for the second game. He has not played international cricket since 2008, but as the all-time leading run scorer in the history of T20 cricket, he might very well still have a few telling knocks left in him, even at the age of 39. 

Australia will be favourites once again and unless England can find a new surge of confidence, it's hard to see them returning home with any sort of series win under their belts.

Key players

Australia

Nathan Coulter-Nile was impressive with the ball in the first match, taking four for 30. The MCG's conditions will be slightly more bowler-friendly than the Hobart Oval so it's the perfect chance for Coulter-Nile to prove his efforts have been no fluke.

England

Eoin Morgan is a feisty player and he showed as much by being one of the standouts for England during the one day series. He had a blip in the first T20, but if Morgan can engineer an innings in the middle, he could be a game-changer.

Squads

Australia

George Bailey (capt), Aaron Finch (vice-capt), Daniel Christian, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Ben Cutting, James Faulkner, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, James Muirhead, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade (wk), Cameron White.

England

Stuart Broad (captain), Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Danny Briggs, Jos Buttler, Jade Dernbach, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Michael Lumb, Eoin Morgan, Boyd Rankin, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, James Tredwell, Luke Wright.

Stats and squads from ESPNCricinfo.com