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New Zealand fast bowler Tim Southee has been ruled out of the upcoming two-match T20I series against Sri Lanka after scans showed a bruise on the bone of his left foot

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Jan-20161:03

Sri Lanka seek revenge in T20s

New Zealand fast bowler Tim Southee has been ruled out of the upcoming two-match T20I series against Sri Lanka after scans showed a bruise on the bone of his left foot.Southee had sustained the injury during the third ODI in Nelson, and was subsequently replaced in the ODI squad by Matt Henry. An NZC release confirmed that Henry would stand in for Southee even in the T20s.”Tim was feeling really fresh after coming back from a break for the first two ODIs, so it’s certainly disappointing for him that this has happened now,” Mike Hesson, New Zealand’s coach, said. “Tim’s obviously a key member of our team and been a strong performer for us in all three formats, so he’s a big loss.”We haven’t set a date for his return at this point, but will continue to monitor him and work to get him back to full fitness as quickly as possible.”Incidentally, that Nelson match was Southee’s first ODI since June, as he had been rested for the limited-overs tour to Africa in August. Southee suffered from an irritated disc in his back during the first Test against Australia in Brisbane, but regained his fitness to play the remaining two matches, in Perth and Adelaide.He was also rested for the first two ODIs of the Sri Lanka series, in Christchurch, and in his absence, Henry, Southee’s replacement, went on to take four-wicket hauls in both games.

Michael Klinger smashed a brilliant 61-ball century to lead Gloucestershire to a 48-run Friends Life t20 victory over Worcestershire at Bristol

30-Jun-2013
ScorecardMichael Klinger hit his first T20 hundred to set up a comfortable win for Gloucestershire•Getty Images

Michael Klinger smashed a brilliant 61-ball century to lead Gloucestershire to a 48-run Friends Life t20 victory over Worcestershire at Bristol.The skipper cracked five sixes and nine fours in contributing 108 to the home side’s total of 184 for 5 after winning the toss, with the next highest score Alex Gidman’s 18. In reply Worcestershire could muster only 136 all out, Alexei Kervezee making 39 and Ben Cox 37 going in at No. 8. James Fuller, David Payne and Benny Howell all bowled tightly for Gloucestershire.Both teams went into the game on the back of defeats in their opening match but after a steady start opener Klinger paced his innings perfectly, accelerating to move from a half-century to his first Twenty20 ton in just 27 deliveries. His five sixes included three in the 17th over, sent down by Daryl Mitchell, which cost the Worcestershire captain 25 runs. The first was over extra cover and the next two straight into the flats being constructed at the Ashley Down Road End.Gidman provided the best support in a fifth-wicket stand of 65 from five overs but was felled by a beamer from Chris Russell, which hit him in the chest, in the 19th over and did not field later in the game. It was Russell’s second such delivery in the over so he was ordered out of the attack and it was completed by Gareth Andrew, who bowled Gidman with the first ball after the batsman received treatment.Worcestershire’s reply got off to a bad start when Moeen Ali drove a catch to cover off Fuller’s fourth ball of the innings and it was 4 for 2 when Thilan Samaraweera skied to slip off Dan Christian. At the end of the six overs of the Powerplay the visitors were becalmed on 35 for 2. The next over saw Mitchell caught at short fine-leg off Payne to make it 39 for three.Andre Russell launched left-arm spinner Tom Smith for two big sixes but perished leg before in the same over and at the halfway stage Worcestershire were 60 for 4, needing a further 125 off 10 overs. They never looked remotely capable of that and wickets continued to fall around Kervezee as Gloucestershire outplayed their opponents in all departments. Cox at least hit a couple of sixes in a defiant and impressive 24-ball effort.

A bludgeoned half-century from new boy Richard Levi and career-best bowling figures from Max Waller saw Somerset to a 63-run victory over Warwickshire

13-Jun-2012
ScorecardA bludgeoned half-century from new boy Richard Levi and career-best bowling figures from leg-spinner Max Waller saw Somerset to a 63-run Friends Life t20 victory over Warwickshire at Taunton.Levi hit 69 off just 34 deliveries, while Waller’s four wickets cost just 16 runs as last season’s beaten finalists started this season’s competition with a win.Somerset, put into bat in front of a crowd of more than 5,000 were given a good start by Craig Kieswetter, who hit a swift 20 – including two sixes – before he was caught at short fine leg by Chris Wright off Chris Woakes.The same bowler struck again in the fifth over when Peter Trego pulled a short delivery to Darren Maddy at deep midwicket. Jos Buttler brought the 50 up with an inside edge to the fine leg boundary off Woakes’ final over.Offspinner Jeetan Patel was brought into the attack for the 10th over and with his second delivery tempted Buttler on 16 to give a catch to Woakes at deep backward point. At the halfway point the hosts were 80 for 3, with Levi on 34.However, in the next over the opener heaved a full toss from Steffan Piolet over midwicket for six – and he repeated the feat off the last ball. In the next over Levi reached his half-century with a boundary to square leg off Patel, which also brought up the Somerset 100.New batsman Albie Morkel hit his first six two balls later when he drove Patel over long-on – and the South African pair took 19 off the 13th over, bowled by Keith Barker. Maddy came on for the 15th and Levi despatched the first ball over long on for six, however four deliveries later Levi’s eye-catching knock was over when he was caught at deep long-on by Woakes.Levi contributes six fours and four sixes and his fourth-wicket partnership with Morkel produced 67 runs from 33 balls. Morkel was run out for 38 off the third ball of the penultimate over by a direct throw from Patel – and three balls later Nick Compton was superbly caught by Chris Wright running back from short fine-leg to collect a top-edged scoop.Chasing a victory target of 192, Laurie Evans and Varun Chopra had taken the total onto 40 in the sixth over when Thomas bowled Evans for 17. Trego accepted a sharp chance to catch William Porterfield at extra cover off Waller, who struck with his next delivery when Maddy was leg before wicket.Chopra went down the wicket to George Dockrell in the next over and was smartly stumped by Kieswetter for 37, before Waller picked up his third wicket when he bowled Rikki Clarke for six with the total on 72.Steve Kirby returned at the Old Pavilion and with the last ball of the 12th over bowled Barker for 3. Waller struck again with the third ball of his final over when Woakes was caught at short midwicket by Thomas, leaving the Bears teetering on 80 for 7.Thomas returned at the River End for the 18th over and immediately claimed his third scalp when Johnson was caught at short midwicket by Trego, then three balls later Patel followed when he was caught by Waller at short cover. Fittingly, Levi ended the Bears innings on 128 when he caught Wright at long-on.

Yorkshire’s prospects of escaping with a draw against Lancashire were advanced substantially by a rain interruption that eventually spanned more than three and a half hours

Jon Culley at Aigburth20-May-2011
Scorecard
Yorkshire were not ready to countenance another batting performance with the shortcomings of their first innings here but their prospects of escaping with a draw were advanced substantially nonetheless by a rain interruption that eventually spanned more than three and a half hours.Two down for 85 in the second innings when a heavy shower heralded the frustratingly long stoppage, they added a further 41 runs in 50 minutes after play restarted at 5.40pm without further loss and will need to add another 57 to make Lancashire bat again on the final day.Joe Sayers completed his second half-century of the match and Andrew Gale is three runs away from following suit. With the pitch taking spin, Lancashire had Steven Croft bowling offbreaks in support of Gary Keedy and might wish they had stuck with Simon Kerrigan after his match-winning performance at Edgbaston. Then again, with Jimmy Anderson itching for a big send-off ahead of next week’s first Test, Lancashire will expect their seamers to inflict some damage on the final morning.It had taken only 11 deliveries for Lancashire to lose their last two wickets as the day began in relatively pleasant weather, albeit a good 10 degrees cooler than the balmy days of late April when Somerset were beaten here.Steve Patterson, whose form has been patchy but who looked somewhere near his best in this match, had Luke Procter leg before with his first ball of the morning as the left-hander tried to work the ball to leg and uprooted Gary Keedy’s off stump four balls later. The 6ft 4ins seamer finished with 4 for 51 from 24.5 overs, which will advance his claims for a regular place in the side as Yorkshire seek to settle on their best attack.Nonetheless, Lancashire’s lead of 188 on a pitch that has generally played slow and low would have left Yorkshire with a lot to do to escape with a draw had the forecast of passing showers not proved somewhat optimistic.When umpires Neil Bainton and Richard Illingworth ushered the players off just after two o’clock it was expected to be only a brief interruption but a scheduled restart at five past three had to be knocked on the head and every hint of brightening skies seemed to prompt another intense burst.Even so, Yorkshire will still have something to do on the last day against a Lancashire attack that seems more than capable of setting up a fourth win in five matches and a first home win over their cross-Pennine rivals since 2000.Anderson, who will not play again in the Championship after this match until at least late in the season (and only then, perhaps, if he is not recalled for England’s one-day team), looked as motivated as ever to make his contribution meaningful. After one fevered appeal for a caught behind off a short ball to Joe Sayers was turned down, Anderson’s follow-through ended with him eyeball-to-eyeball with the batsman, presumably asking him to reflect on his good fortune.It did not impress Sayers, who is little by little reacquiring the characteristic stubbornness that made him such a doughty opponent before he was laid low by illness last year. Anderson has found as much life in this pitch as anyone and was unlucky to be wicketless after bowling seven consistently challenging overs before the rain came.The wickets instead went to Chapple, who upped the pressure on the Yorkshire batsmen by not conceding a run until his seventh over, and Farveez Maharoof.Chapple struck in his fourth over with a ball that stopped on Adam Lyth enough to induce a tame return catch from the left-hander, who is struggling to match the form he enjoyed in the early part of last season, when he went close to the coveted feat of scoring 1,000 first-class runs by the end of May.His return thus far this season has been a paltry 283, even taking three half-centuries into account. He has been dismissed in single figures in five of his last seven innings, although talk of his being dropped is premature.Yorkshire need his quality, especially now that the loss of Jacques Rudolph is being felt. Joe Root, the 20-year-old from Sheffield, has made a good impression every time he has played but it is on the shoulders of Lyth, Sayers and Andrew Gale that responsibility lies, and with Anthony McGrath when he regains his fitness.Root fell to Maharoof, in two minds about whether to go forward or back to a ball that kept a touch low. Apart from the moment that Anderson thought he had found an edge or a glove, when he had scored only one, Sayers has looked solid. With no Jonny Bairstow or Gerard Brophy to come, he and Gale hold the key to Yorkshire’s survival.

Ryan McLaren is determined to rise to even greater heights on South Africa’s tour of the Caribbean after taking 5 for 19 in the first Twenty20 against West Indies

Cricinfo staff19-May-2010Ryan McLaren is determined to rise to even greater heights on South Africa’s tour of the Caribbean after taking 5 for 19 in the first Twenty20 against West Indies. McLaren returned the second-best figures in Twenty20 international history as he bowled South Africa to a 13-run victory in Antigua.”It’s a good way to start off the tour having practised indoors and not outdoors for the last few weeks,” McLaren said after the match. “But it’s only the first day, and there’s plenty more cricket to come, so hopefully, I can better this performance. We all know the nature of T20 cricket – the bowler is always up against it.”You can take five wickets one day, and the next day, take a thumping, but I enjoyed it. It was not an easy day for the batters, and you had to graft pretty hard. Playing shots was not easy, and there was a strong wind, so there were a lot of things you had to take into consideration.”It was obviously nice to start with a win. This was the most important thing for us. We have worked really hard over the last few days here in Antigua, had a few discussions, the energy has been good around the team, and a lot of new faces have come in. We want to have a good tour of the Caribbean, so success in this match was very important to getting us off on the right foot.”The series could be important for the confidence of both teams after they failed to reach the semi-finals of the World Twenty20. The two Twenty20s are followed by five ODIs and three Tests and the West Indies captain Chris Gayle said there was plenty of room for improvement from his men.”It was a disappointing start for us,” Gayle said. “We wanted to put our dismal performance in the T20 World Cup behind us, but this was not the best way to do it, and was not the best start to the series.”We still have a match on Thursday, so we have to pick ourselves up. This is no time for pointing fingers. We have a lot of corrections to make out there, and we have to return to the drawing board to try and get the best out of the players.”

Sri Lanka captain also explains why they’ve been hard to come by

Andrew Fidel Fernando05-Sep-2024It’s the batters, batters, batters. Right through the series, Sri Lanka have emphasised that it was their batting order that was letting the side down. Four innings in, with Sri Lanka never having got close to 350, with none of their top seven having got to triple-figures, captain Dhananjaya de Silva has reiterated the importance of top order runs again.In the first Test, Sri Lanka were 72 for 5 in the first innings. In the second Test, they were 83 for 5 in the first innings. Here’s where de Silva believes they lost.”Our batters have to score runs, and that’s the biggest issue we’ve had, ” he said. “Those who got starts didn’t turn them into hundreds and 150s. If you look at Joe Root on their side, he’s consistently made runs and it’s around him that others made runs. That’s what someone on our side needs to do as well, so we can get to 300 or 350. First-innings runs are what’s crucial to victory.”Related

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The only Sri Lanka batter to make serious runs on tour has been Kamindu Mendis, who batting at No. 7 has made scores of 113 in Manchester and 74 at Lord’s. He arrives at his sixth Test with a batting average of 78.87, having made six fifty-plus scores in nine innings, and having gone onto triple-figures on three of those occasions.Sri Lanka would have been tempted to shunt him up the order for this match, given not only his form, but the fact that he bats in the top and middle order frequently for domestic sides. But they will leave him where he is, for now, de Silva said.”I think if Kamindu plays well down there there’s no reason to change what he’s doing and put him in trouble. If he’s scoring there, it’s good for his career as well. In the future, maybe we will talk to him, about his plans as well and see what changes we can make. But right now we’re thinking of him as a No. 7.”The remainder of the batting order, even those on their third tour of England, have struggled badly against England’s seamers meanwhile. A lot of this has to do with their discipline, de Silva said.”They [England] have a lot of control in addition to their experience. They have great control of line and length and we don’t get many loose balls in England. We need to be prepared for that and our plans have to take that into account. That’s just what you get in England. In the two previous matches they didn’t let us execute our plans. That’s why they were successful.”Root, who has made 350 runs in four innings so far in the series, has also helped pound Sri Lanka to a 2-0 scoreline. Earlier this week, Dimuth Karunaratne spoke about Sri Lanka needing to go back to square one with their planning for him. De Silva hopes they’ve now got something together that will surprise Root, at the very least.”It’s not that our plans against him didn’t work – he just very quickly recognised what we were trying to do and countered it. That’s what world class players do, and that’s why he scored runs. We’ve hopefully come up with something now that he won’t expect.”

After a promising start from Gloucestershire it all went the home side’s way

ECB Reporters Network25-Jun-2023Yorkshire young guns Finlay Bean and George Hill posted superb centuries – 114 and 101 respectively – to ensure their side dominated the opening day of the LV= Insurance County Championship clash with Gloucestershire at Headingley.Left-handed opener Bean faced 153 balls for his second century of the Division Two season – and the second of the 21-year-old’s fledgling career. It was the main contribution in Yorkshire’s 393 for 6 from 91 overs.He shared a stand of 57 with Dawid Malan for the third wicket during the morning and then 153 for the fourth either side of lunch with fellow up and comer George Hill, who then faced 180 balls and shared 111 for the fifth wicket with Jonny Tattersall.It was allrounder Hill’s first century of the summer, with Gloucestershire too loose with the Kookaburra ball having been asked to bowl in excellent batting conditions.Left-arm seamer Taylor stood out like a sore thumb amongst his colleagues with three for 43 from 17 overs, including Tattersall late on for 79. Five overs were lost to evening rain.Play was watched by Yorkshire’s new chair Harry Chathli and also their former County Championship title-winning coach Jason Gillespie, the Australian bowling legend who was triumphant with the county in 2014 and 2015.He is back in the UK for the Ashes and back at Headingley for the first time since leaving. Things have changed dramatically since Gillespie departed at the end of 2016, his side having just missed out on a third successive Championship title to Middlesex.Not only has there been upheaval off the field, results have fallen drastically on it as well, highlighted by this being a Division Two encounter.Only Adam Lyth and Matthew Fisher from the current side played four-day cricket during the Australian legend’s golden tenure.But the performances of two young players who were only playing county age-group during Gillespie’s tenure should serve as indication of future promise.Lyth’s opening partner Bean, 21, was playing for Yorkshire Under 14s during Gillespie’s last year in 2016 and Hill for the Under 15s.Bean has enjoyed an encouraging start to life in senior cricket having returned to the club last summer following a brief break to go and work as a mechanic.He earned a rookie contract on the back of a record-breaking 441 in the second team last year and made his first-team bow in August.He played a trio of Championship matches last September, but was a first choice starter at the beginning of April and scored 118 in the opening round defeat here against Leicestershire.Bean watched on from the non-striker’s end as three senior partners departed before lunch, including Lyth and captain Shan Masood within four balls to Taylor as the score slipped to 33 for 2 in the sixth over. Lyth edged to second slip trying to leave alone before Masood was trapped lbw for a three-ball duck.Bean shared 57 with another left-hander, Dawid Malan, who looked in good order for 28 before being caught behind down leg trying pull Ben Charlesworth’s seam – 90 for 3 in the 17th.But Gloucestershire’s good early work was eroded thanks to their inability to limit the fours, especially to the short boundary towards the East Stand side of this ground.Hill, 22, is more advanced in his development than Bean – a right-hander particularly strong against spin. Hill has been frustrated by his inability to build on starts over the last couple of seasons. But he did here. This was his best of four times beyond 50 in the Championship this season.Bean reached his century off 140 balls midway through the afternoon. But he only faced 13 more deliveries and fell caught at deep square-leg pulling at Zaman Akhter – 243 for 4 in the 53rd over.After tea, Hill moved into the nineties and took Yorkshire beyond 300 by helping Tattersall take 19 from the 72nd over against Gohar, including a slog-swept six over midwicket.He reached his century off 177 balls before falling caught behind off Ollie Price’s offspin. And when Taylor, now bowling with the new ball, had Tattersall caught at second slip, Yorkshire were 368 for 6 after 86 overs.

Home Office backlog caused by displacement of Ukrainian citizens sees Pujara miss Notts fixture

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Apr-2022Cheteshwar Pujara will miss the opening game of his stint as Sussex’s overseas player in the County Championship due to a visa hold-up caused indirectly by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Pujara, who was dropped by India for their recent Test series against Sri Lanka and has been demoted in the BCCI’s contract list, was due to play Sussex’s first six Championship games of the season before returning later in the summer for the Royal London Cup and “some additional four-day games”, according to the club’s statement.He had been expected to arrive in time to make his debut against Nottinghamshire on Thursday, but will not be available until Sussex’s fixture against Derbyshire the following week due to a delay in receiving his visa.Related

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“Securing overseas players has been tremendously difficult in the current climate,” Keith Greenfield, Sussex’s performance director, said. “We renegotiated the initial Pujara contract so he could return for more County Championship and Royal London 50-over matches, and this subsequently changed the visa requirements.”On top of this, the Ukraine crisis has meant that the Home Office has redirected their resources to help with the displacement of Ukrainian citizens. We were expecting Pujara to be with us last weekend but can now confirm he will be here at the back end of this week.”Ian Salisbury, the club’s Championship and 50-over head coach, said he was “extremely disappointed… not [to] have a player of Pujara’s experience and quality available for the opening day of the season”.Sussex will also be without Ollie Robinson for the first game of the season, with the fast bowler made unavailable by the ECB after missing all three of England’s Tests against West Indies in the Caribbean last month through injury.

Vince becomes second Multan Sultans player to withdraw; Joe Denly lined up as replacement

George Dobell09-Nov-2020James Vince’s involvement in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) is in doubt after he tested positive for Covid-19.Vince, a member of England’s World Cup-winning squad, was set to play for Multan Sultans in the PSL playoffs on November 14.ESPNcricinfo understands he is asymptomatic and will imminently undergo a second test. But he is legally obliged to self-isolate for 10 days from the date of the positive test.Vince has also signed for Sydney Sixers in the Big Bash League (BBL), but, with the start date just over a month away, he should still be able to take part.ALSO READ: Mahmudullah to miss PSL playoffs after testing positive for Covid-19It is the second significant blow to Multan’s title hopes in as many days, following the withdrawal of Mahmudullah, the Bangladesh allrounder, on Sunday, also due to a positive Covid test. Vince scored 155 runs in five innings before the tournament was cut short by the pandemic earlier this year.ESPNcricinfo understands that the franchise are hoping to sign a replacement for Vince, with Joe Denly the likely candidate.It is unclear at this stage who Vince may have been in contact with in recent days but they, too, would need to self-isolate for 14 days from that meeting.

England’s plans of qualifying for the final four hang in the balance after a second successive loss, this one by 64 runs

The Report by Daniel Brettig25-Jun-2019As it happenedAustralia played Test match cricket in miniature to get the better of England and a set of conditions at Lord’s that were not really in the blueprint for Eoin Morgan’s side ahead of a tournament in which they now face the tightest of ropes to qualify for the semi-finals. Australia, meanwhile, are now in the final four, the first team to get there.The cut and thrust of this Lord’s ODI was a world away from the virtual home run derby of Trent Bridge a year ago. That day, England tallied a gargantuan 481 and seemingly set the tone for the way this World Cup would be played. Yet, in the crucible of a global tournament played in the damp of an early summer beset by rain, Australia’s more deliberate plans, built on a stable, steady top order and a collective of pace and class with the ball have held up; the fireworks of Nottingham might as well have taken place on Mars.Australia captain Aaron Finch deservedly claimed the match award for a century that represented not only leadership by example but also a personal triumph over technical troubles that had made him so susceptible to the ball seaming into him. It would have been hard to imagine conditions more conducive to such a risk than these, but Finch overcame them with help from David Warner to set up a platform that, if not fully exploited, was enough to take the Australians to the sort of score they have commonly defended in recent months.They did so via a bowling attack chosen specifically for England. Jason Behrendorff had played only once before this game, and Nathan Lyon not at all, but they gelled beautifully with Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Marcus Stoinis to unbalance England at the start and then snuff out any subsequent rearguards before they assumed troubling proportions.Behrendorff’s swing and guile, if revelatory to Lord’s observers, were no surprise to those who know his best days for Western Australia. Starc’s speed and swing up front, then his late swerving yorker afterwards, were exactly what Finch required. In all this and another sublime fielding display, the Australians continued their march to a peak of performance at the definitive end of this World Cup. A sixth title is now closer than many, perhaps, expected before the tournament.Buckets of overnight rain drenched St John’s Wood and there was some question over the start time, but the weather cleared enough to allow for the scheduled toss, though not after Jofra Archer had required a fitness test to play. That interlude did not dissuade Morgan from bowling first on a green-tinged surface when calling correctly, although Finch admitted he had been somewhat more equivocal having called up Lyon and Behrendorff as replacements.Memories of Australia’s twin collapses to the moving ball in Birmingham and Nottingham in the 2015 Ashes are still fresh, and Warner was a victim of both. But, alongside Finch, he was to carve out an opening stand that confounded the expectations of an overcast morning, aided by English imprecision when choosing their length of attack. Too often short of a length if not outright short, they also saw numerous Australian edges avoid going to hand or falling short, meaning 44 for no loss was the tally after ten nervy overs for both sides.Acceleration followed, both Warner and Finch finding the boundary and the captain also clearing it twice, as English brows furrowed in the middle and in the stands. Warner looked as fluent as he has all tournament and it was a surprise when, having crafted a third century stand with Finch for the Cup, he was fooled by a Moeen Ali offbreak that held in the pitch and ballooned to Joe Root, running around from backward point.Aaron Finch’s second century of the World Cup took Austalia into the semis•Getty Images

Usman Khawaja was chosen to accompany Finch, and together they lifted the Australians to an imposing 173 for 1 after 32 overs – a platform from which a score of 350 was plausible on paper, if less likely in the prevailing conditions. Khawaja’s fall only succeeded in bringing Steven Smith to the middle with plenty of overs to spare, and when Finch went to his hundred via a Chris Woakes misfield at fine leg it appeared the Australians were well on top.But Finch chose the wrong moment to try a hook, top edging straight to Woakes the very next ball and reproaching himself with all the fury of a captain who knew he had done exactly what he has asked teammates not to – squander an opportunity to turn a century into a monument. His anguish was to be intensified by the decline that followed, as Glenn Maxwell followed two memorable blows off Archer with a wafty edge behind off the rapid Mark Wood, Stoinis was run out over a disputed second run with Smith, and the former captain lost his timing and his wicket while trying to get runs around the corner.It all added up to the loss of 6 for 86, and at 259 for 7 England may have been chasing as little as 270. However, some late salvaging by Alex Carey, including 11 from Ben Stokes’ final over of the innings and a boundary from the final ball, inched the total up to 285. A defendable total is all Australia’s bowlers have asked for this tournament, and there was a small but discernible nod from Ricky Ponting on the Lord’s balcony as Carey and Starc jogged off for the change of innings.If some surprise greeted the sight of Behrendorff limbering up to deliver the first ball of the England reply, there was slack-jawed shock in the Members Pavilion when his second ball curled fiendishly late to knock back the middle stump of an overcommitted James Vince. Behrendorff mixed swing and angle with skill and experience of his methods to provide an ideal counterpoint to Starc, who at the other end accounted for Root and then Morgan in the manner of his 2015 World Cup pomp.Root was pinned on the crease and in front of all three stumps by a ball that swung back just enough at pace, before Finch moved long leg finer and Starc delivered with a fast bouncer that Morgan could only sky off top edge and glove to Cummins, who made good ground to the catch. Having already retreated outside leg stump to try to drive Starc, Morgan’s brief innings will remain in the Australian memory bank.An attempt at recovery by Jonny Bairstow, speckled with some attractive strokes, was ended when he hooked unwisely at Behrendorff and was also held by Cummins, this time on the midwicket fence. A better outfield catch was to follow when Jos Buttler, just getting himself going, swivel-pulled Stoinis towards square leg and Khawaja did not break stride in taking a catch he might have struggled to reach before admirable fitness and fielding work in the year since Justin Langer became head coach.Even then, with Buttler out of the picture, Stokes harboured some hope of delivering England to victory, for he had shrugged off a calf ailment to climb to his highest score in a Lord’s ODI, and by helping England to 22 in two Cummins overs seemed set for a thrilling finish. This, however, was to reckon without Starc, called back by Finch for the late-innings clean-up job. He certainly did a job on Stokes, conjuring a 145kph yorker that screeched under the set allrounder’s bat to send the bails zinging and more or less end the match. Stokes, for his part, dropped his bat and kicked it away in exasperation.The rest of the game passed as if according to script. Behrendorff was able to complete a five-for at Lord’s, finding a beauty to leave Moeen then aided by the most composed boundary-line double-act catch from Maxwell to Finch. Starc, fittingly, took the last wicket, leaving Australia atop the Cup table and safely into the semi-finals. England, having waited so long for this day, must now play some of the best cricket of their lives to make the finals, let alone win them.