Australia vs. England: Winners and Losers from Cricket World Cup Match
Australia stormed to an emphatic victory on the opening day of the Cricket World Cup on Saturday, thrashing England by 111 runs in front of nearly 85,000 fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Led by a superb hundred from opener Aaron Finch, an important half-century by George Bailey and aided by some strong late hitting from Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Marsh and Brad Haddin, the hosts raced to an imposing total of 342-9 after being sent in by England captain Eoin Morgan.
In response, the visitors were never in the game, slumping to 66-4 and then 92-6 as Marsh ripped through the top-order with personal figures of five for 33.
Thanks to a rearguard and unbeaten 98 from James Taylor, England were able to escape from total humiliation before being bowled out for 231 in the 42nd over.
Across the following slides, we examine the winners and losers from Saturday's match.
Winner: Aaron Finch
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When discussing Australia's staggering array of powerful one-day batsmen, Aaron Finch is sometimes overlooked amid the presence of David Warner, Shane Watson and Glenn Maxwell.
But the stocky Victorian continues to prove that he's a brilliant partner for Warner at the top of the order, and on Saturday, he crunched a magnificent 135 from just 128 balls to set up Australia's huge victory.
Impressively, Finch showed off two sides to his game in Melbourne. In the opening stages, he was the aggressor as he punished anything loose from James Anderson and Stuart Broad, but three quick wickets in the space of three overs changed the task for the right-hander.
Alongside George Bailey, the 28-year-old reined in his game and absorbed the pressure in a steady partnership with his captain, allowing his team to emerge from a delicate situation to storm to a massive total.
Chris Woakes, who dropped Finch on nought in the first over, is likely to be pondering what might have been.
Loser: Eoin Morgan
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Eoin Morgan's last five scores read: nought, nought, nought, two and nought.
For the England captain, it's been dire stuff.
On Saturday in Melbourne, Morgan's horror run continued as he attempted a pull-shot off the bowling of Mitchell Marsh but saw his toe-end edge find the gloves of a diving Brad Haddin.
After replacing Alastair Cook as his nation's 50-over captain, the left-hander now finds himself under as much pressure as his predecessor.
Winning the toss and fielding first on a sunny Melbourne day didn't help either.
Winner: Glenn Maxwell
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Suddenly, it's all clicking for Glenn Maxwell. He's in full flow.
Here in Melbourne, the flamboyant Australian thumped a rapid 66 from just 40 balls to completely take the game away from England after Aaron Finch had set the perfect platform for his fellow Victorian.
In trademark fashion from Maxwell, the reverse sweeps were on display, slaps down the ground were prevalent and vicious pull-shots dealt with anything short. And pleasingly, it was all mixed with a dash of finesse.
After a highly criticised performance in the UAE, a disastrous time against South Africa last November, an unusually lean stint in the Big Bash and an indifferent start to the recent triangular series, Maxwell has found his form.
His last four scores of 95, 122, seven and 66 make for ominous reading for Australia's World Cup opponents.
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Loser: England's Bowling Plans
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Bowling is supposed to be England's strength. Though the team's batting lineup still looks below the standard of those belonging to the world's elite sides, an attack led by James Anderson and Stuart Broad should represent the foundation of England's side.
But something seems to happen when they face Australia in the 50-over arena: it all falls apart, the plans seem to disintegrate.
In his first over, Broad troubled Aaron Finch with a full length, just as Anderson had done in the previous over. When Broad returned for his next over, Finch sent the first ball audaciously back over his head for four.
But then, Broad, having conceded just one boundary and after troubling the right-hander, decided it was time to switch to the short stuff. One four, and a full length was temporarily abandoned.
It was exactly what the Australians wanted, and Finch and Warner duly responded by collecting 10 runs from the three short balls that followed, allowing the hosts to move into another gear.
And perplexing patterns continued thereafter.
When England had their men in the deep behind the wicket, they bowled full. When fielders were deployed down the ground, they bowled short.
Either the bowlers failed to carry out the plans, or didn't believe in the plans that were in place.
Frankly, it's hard to know what's worse.
Winner: Australia's Title Bid
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As far as statements go, this was a big one. Massive, in fact.
Australia annihilated England in every way possible on Saturday, and in doing so, they set down a marker that their World Cup rivals will have to match.
With the bat, the hosts were as dynamic as ever, racing to a colossal total with a combination of sumptuous stroke making, ingenuity and brute force.
Once in the field, the left-arm duo of Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc were electric while operating at or near 150 kph, Mitchell Marsh was outstanding as the fourth seamer and—until a couple of lapses when the sting had gone out of the game—Australia's catching and ground fielding was first-class.
If there were any doubts relating to the pressures of being the hosts and favourites, they were extinguished with an emphatic performance in front of almost 85,000 fans in Melbourne on Saturday.
Losers: England's Selectors
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Prior to Saturday's World Cup opener, the last time Gary Ballance had played a one-day international was last September.
For England's tour of Sri Lanka last year, he remained at home. For the recent triangular series prior to this World Cup, he sat on the sidelines with a finger injury.
But here in Melbourne, he was thrust into the No. 3 position, despite his only cricket in the last five months coming in the practice games earlier in the week.
As such, it wasn't surprising that he looked out of sorts.
Worse, Ballance's inclusion forced James Taylor, at the expense of Ravi Bopara, down to No. 6—a finishing position he'd never previously occupied in the ODI arena.
That Taylor scored an admirable 98 misses the point; England changed the order with little evidence suggesting it was right to do so, asking a top-order player to reinvent his game overnight and a player lacking match practice to deal with Mitchell Johnson and Co. in a World Cup opener.
Winner: New Zealand
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After cruising to their own impressive victory earlier in the day, New Zealand would have watched on with interest as fellow Pool A rivals Australia and England did battle in Melbourne on Saturday.
And with England next on New Zealand's fixture list—the teams meet in Wellington next Friday—the Kiwis will have liked what they witnessed: a muddled batting lineup, a bowling attack unable to apply the brakes and a woeful display in the field.
Unless there's a drastic turnaround in England's form, a high-flying New Zealand outfit will likely compound the team's headaches.
Loser: The Host Broadcaster
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Where do we start with Saturday's broadcast?
It was, well, awful. There is no other way to put it.
For the opening overs, we were treated to a drab conversation being had between a group of well-oiled young men near the fence—a group not on camera, just louder than the commentators—as the broadcaster seemed unable to get the right mix of volumes from its various microphones around the ground.
When it wasn't that group, it was the high-pitched tones of some young children that did the same trick.
If you were able to ignore that, it became extremely difficult to ignore the crackling audio from the commentary box each time one of the game's callers raised their voice by a single decibel.
And with little sound seeming to come from the stump microphone, the only way to capture some of the atmosphere was to turn the volume up at random junctures, which inevitably led to worsening the aforementioned problems.
And it didn't end there.
At one point, we watched almost an entire over from deep mid-on, which, if it hadn't already, made the gigantic graphics and pictures of the players' faces splashed across the screen seem more important to the broadcaster than the action itself.
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