Australia Secures 28 Runs Victory as Hazlewood and Zampa Shine After Head’s Explosive Start
Australia may have lost 10 wickets for 93 runs after a powerful start, but they still managed to seal a 28-run victory over England in the 1st T20I at Southampton on September 11, 2024.
Thanks to a scorching 59 from Travis Head and strong efforts from Matt Short (41) and Josh Inglis (37), Australia scored 179 on the board. Although Liam Livingstone of England made a heroic effort with the ball, taking 3 for 22, the damage had already been done.
Key Performances and Match Results
Australia 179 (Head 59, Short 41, Inglis 37, Livingstone 3-22) beat England 151 (Livingstone 37, Abbott 3-28) by 28 runs.
A similar outcome marked the beginning of England’s new era: their second crushing loss to Australia in three months. In June’s T20 World Cup, Australia lost by 36 runs at Barbados’ Kensington Oval. Almost 4,000 miles away, at Hampshire’s Utilita Bowl, the difference was only eight runs lower thanks to Travis Head’s powerplay assault.
With Phil Salt serving as interim captain and Marcus Trescothick as coach, the England team appeared fleeting as they rapidly fell to 52 for 4 in their chase of 180. The fifth wicket was reached by Liam Livingstone and Sam Curran, who will both be left off of the ODI team for next week. However, the innings was lost to the cold.
Rain showers delayed the toss, so Australia was sent in, and despite reaching 86 for 0 with one ball left in the powerplay, they were unable to build on their explosive start, losing all 10 wickets for 93 runs. Matt Short and Head hit 15 of the first 35 balls for four or six, with Head scoring just marginally less than his incredible 80 off 25 against Scotland a week earlier.
After the field stretched, England’s bowlers rallied, with Livingstone and Adil Rashid, their two legspinners, bowling a combined 4 for 45 from seven overs. Australia was bowled out with three balls remaining in the innings due to consistent wicket-taking in the second part of the session; nonetheless, this was not a costly outcome as Josh Hazlewood and Adam Zampa demonstrated their superiority.
With temperatures at least twenty degrees lower than in Barbados on this chilly mid-September evening, the situation could not have been more dissimilar from the sides’ previous meeting. However, the two powerplays felt remarkably similar to England’s bowlers; the early assault by Australia reminded them of Will Jacks and Mark Wood’s 22-run overs at Bridgetown.
Replacing Jake Fraser-McGurk at the top of the order, Short made a compelling case to be David Warner’s long-term replacement after missing the Scotland series due to paternity leave. Though their statures couldn’t be more dissimilar, Short demonstrated his dominance by repeatedly hitting Reece Topley for sixes over square leg in the second over.
After thrashing Jofra Archer for three fours in four balls, Head successfully overturned a caught-behind decision off Saqib Mahmood, and it seemed to prompt a realisation of his impermanence, with Curran bearing the brunt. And Head soon took over, making the sort of lightning-fast start that has become his trademark in his second coming as a T20 player.
With half of those boundaries going over the rope, Curran gave up a boundary off each of his opening six deliveries. Head anticipated each ball’s pitching location, anticipating if it would be short or full, straight or wide, and where it would fade towards the rope. Curran would not have wanted to begin the T20I leg in this manner after being left out of the England ODI team.
Head trapped Mahmood to six runs to reach a 19-ball fifty. This was his fifth powerplay fifty this year alone. He was out to deep backward square leg on the last ball of the powerplay for 59, but Australia’s six-over total of 86 for 1 was the third-highest in their T20I history.
After backing his spinners to apply the brakes through the middle, Salt was immediately vindicated when Mitchell Marsh’s off stump was blasted back by Rashid’s legbreak. While Josh Inglis made sure everything was going with his 37 from No. 4, punishing Jacob Bethell for missing the mark, Livingstone, Salt’s seventh bowler, was the real star.
He struck twice in two balls after Curran caught Short well at deep backward square leg. Australia was reduced to 132 for 5 in the 13th over as Tim David was hit on the front pad while sweeping his first ball by Marcus Stoinis, who had hammered Livingstone back over his head for six but was trapped leg before wicket on the reverse-sweep.
Curran overcame his early difficulties to bowl a reverse-scooping Inglis, but in the dying stages, Archer and Mahmood replaced the stumps of the lower order with a string of yorkers and low full tosses.
During the run chase, the temperature plunged to single digits, and England’s batters could hardly warm the 15,011 spectators by setting off the pyrotechnics that welcomed each boundary. Following his return from a calf strain, Hazlewood struck in his opening over to have Jacks caught at long leg, and England found it difficult to maintain the required rate.
Jordan Cox was dismissed on his debut for his country thanks to a spectacular outfield catch made by David, who was running back from mid-on to deep midwicket and diving at full stretch. England’s problems deepened when Salt picked out Short at deep square leg on the last ball of the powerplay. Bethell miscalculated how long Zampa’s legbreak would be before he chopped onto his stumps.
Moving up to No. 4 from his typical finishing spot, Livingstone took Stoinis for 17 in an over to offer England hope, but the match was gone when he and Curran fell within four balls of each other. The only scare for Australia was an apparent side injury for Xavier Bartlett. Cameron Green had to finish his fourth over before removing Rashid with an amazing diving catch made sprinting back from mid-off.
