Monday 12 / May / 2025
Southampton: England may have won the first game by two runs after an Australia middle-order collapse, but not before they suffered a middle-order meltdown themselves. The teams will look for answers ahead of the second T20I.
Australia were in pole position to win the first game after a cracking start to the chase by their openers, but the failure to close out the game has put the spotlight back on their middle order struggles in T20I cricket.
Over the last two years, Glenn Maxwell has been Australia's most prolific run-scorer from positions between No.4 to No.7, scoring 349 runs at 38.77 but no other batsman has aggregated even hundred runs when batting in those positions. Australia will hope for the likes of Carey and Stoinis to come good, while Marnus Labuschagne could be in line for a T20I debut.
England's middle-order concerns haven't been quite as grave but with Ben Stokes absent for this series and Moeen Ali struggling with form, the bulk of the burden to score has fallen on Eoin Morgan's shoulders. The home team are experimenting with Tom Banton, usually a top-order batsman, in the middle order and could well give him more chances to get used to batting there.
The teams, occupying the top spots on the MRF Tyres ICC Men's T20I Rankings, have exceptional resources in the opening and bowlers' departments. It is unlikely either side will consider major changes in those areas from their personnel in the first game, except for purposes of experimentation.
Remember the last time
After openers Aaron Finch and David Warner made fifties, Australia looked on par for a comfortable win, requiring only 39 runs off their last six overs with nine wickets in hand.
But a double-strike from Adil Rashid to remove Smith and Maxwell sent Australia into a spiral. As panic ensued, Australia were finally stopped at 160/6, falling two runs short of victory.
Jos Buttler (44 off 29) and Dawid Malan (66 off 43) had been the main contributors to England's score. No other member from the batting order got into double figures until lower-order man Chris Jordan propped up the score with a useful eight-ball 14*.
Eoin Morgan, England captain said: "To try and win the game is the priority, so you have to chase your tail a little bit or come up with different things. I'm delighted the guys showed belief and courage to do something to take wickets, and that was displayed a lot in the last six overs when we held our length a lot because it was the hardest to hit."
Aaron Finch, Australia captain said: "We knew that England were going to keep coming hard and they executed really well. We just struggled to find the boundary a bit in that 12-18 over mark. That is something to keep working on and that's not the first time it's happened, so as long as the boys keep learning and improve at it, lesson learned."
