T20 World Cup: Buttler, Jordan shine as England crush Australia

An unbeaten 71 from Jos Buttler and a man-of-the-match perfromance from Chris Jordan helped England beat Australia with eight wickets and 50 deliveries to spare and maintain their perfect run in the T20 World Cup on Saturday. 

Openers Buttler and Jason Roy gave England the perfect platform to launch their chase of a paltry 126-run target at the Dubai International Stadium, stitching a 66-run opening stand inside the powerplay overs. 

Also Read | T20 World Cup: Just one of those nights, Australia captain Aaron Finch on 8-wicket loss to England

Buttler was the most dangerous of the England batters as he slammed five fours and as many sixes during his unbeaten knock, which is the fastest fifty in the tournament till now.

Australia managed to get rid of Roy and Dawid Malan (8) but it made no difference as Jonny Bairstow joined Buttler in sending their opponents on a leather hunt.

Bairstow smashed two sixes off Adam Zampa during his unbeaten 10-ball 16 run innings as England reached 126 for 2 to win the match and inch closer to the semifinals. 

The win also maintains England’s perfect run, while Australia suffered their first loss of the tournament after beating South Africa and Sri Lanka in their previous two games.

Also Read | T20 World Cup, Eng vs Aus: Story of highest and lowest powerplay totals

Earlier, Chris Woakes (2/23) and Chris Jordan (3/17) rattled Australia’s top-order by removing opener David Warner (1), Steve Smith (1) and Glenn Maxwell (6) in the first four overs before skipper Aaron Finch (44 off 49 balls) resurrected the innings.

Woakes was in action early on as he induced a nick from Warner to deal the first blow and then pulled off a sensational catch at mid-on to remove Steve Smith off Jordan’s bowling.

Ashton Agar (20), Pat Cummins (12) and Mitchell Starc (13) then hit some lusty blows at the death to give some respectability to the Australian total.

Cummins smashed two sixes off the first two deliveries he faced but Jordan struck twice in two deliveries to remove the bowling all-rounder as well as skipper Finch.