2007 Twenty20 World Championship: England vs Australia

September 14, 2007

Australia have beaten England by eight wickets in Group B of the 2007 Twenty20 World Championship at Newlands Cricket Ground, Cape Town, South Africa.

England posted a total of 135 runs after being restricted by some good Australian bowling. Reduced to 48-3 in the eighth over, Kevin Pietersen made 21 runs before being bowled by Nathan Bracken. Paul Collingwood fell lbw to Brett Lee for 18 while Andrew Flintoff was caught by Stuart Clark on 31, leaving England on 127-6. England collapsed to 135 all out at the end of their 20 overs, after losing their last four wickets for just nine runs.

Australia comfortably won the match in the fifteenth over. Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden shared an opening partnership of 78 runs before Gilchrist was caught by Andrew Flintoff. Ricky Ponting was caught and bowled by Flintoff for 20 runs, but Hayden scored 67 not out as Australia cruised to an eight wicket victory.

Both England and Australia will advance to the Super 8 stage of the tournament. All three teams in the group have two points with one win and one defeat each, but Australia and England progress as Zimbabwe have an inferior net run rate.

Toss: England won, and chose to bat first.

Fall of wickets: 1-29 (Prior, 4.5 ov), 2-37 (Wright, 6.4 ov), 3-48 (Maddy, 7.3 ov), 4-73 (Collingwood, 10.3 ov), 5-97 (Pietersen, 13.1 ov), 6-127 (Flintoff, 16.6 ov), 7-128 (Shah, 17.4 ov), 8-132 (Schofield, 18.5 ov), 9-132 (Mascarenhas, 18.6 ov), 10-135 (Broad, 19.6 ov)

Fall of wickets: 1-78 (Gilchrist, 8.2 ov), 2-120 (Ponting, 13.3 ov)

Did not bat: M E K Hussey, B J Hodge, M J Clarke, B Lee, M G Johnson, N W Bracken, S R Clark

England: D L Maddy, M J Prior (wkt), L J Wright, K P Pietersen, P D Collingwood (capt), A Flintoff, O A Shah, A D Mascarenhas, C P Schofield, S C J Broad, R J Kirtley

Australia: A C Gilchrist (wkt), M L Hayden, R T Ponting (capt), A Symonds, M E K Hussey, B J Hodge, M J Clarke, B Lee, M G Johnson, N W Bracken, S R Clark

Man of the Match: N W Bracken (Australia)

Umpires: Asad Rauf (Pakistan) and I L Howell (South Africa) TV Umpire: A L Hill (New Zealand) Match Referee: R S Madugalle (Sri Lanka) Reserve Umpire: M Erasmus (South Africa)