- Group 1: England 126-2, bt Australia 125, by eight wkts
- Opener makes 71 from 32 as England win with 50 balls to spare
There was a moment, two balls into the 11th over of their innings, when the cameras cut to the balcony outside England’s dressing room, where Eoin Morgan was shaking his head in disbelief. In the middle, Jos Buttler was playing one of the great Twenty20 innings and Australia’s Adam Zampa, having come into the game as the second most economical bowler still in the tournament (after England’s own Chris Woakes), was on his way to departing it as the 32nd. It was not only England’s captain who was finding it all hard to fathom.
It could only ever be so long, a certain number of matches, a limited quantity of emphatically beaten opponents, that England’s critics could reasonably complain that Morgan’s side had not been properly challenged at this World Cup. After they added Australia to the list of teams they have humbled it is clear that when they perform they are just not a team that is particularly challengeable.
