Australia smash 342/9 against England in WC opener (Lead)

Posted on 14th Feb 2015 05:10 pm by mohit kumar

Melbourne, Feb 14 (IANS) Co-hosts Australia hammered their way to 342/9 in their cricket World Cup opener against England at the historic Melbourne Cricket Ground here Saturday.

Opening batsman Aaron Finch (135) guided the four-time World Champions to the mammoth total with his sixth century. He got good support from skipper George Bailey (55) and all-rounder Glenn Maxwell (66).

This is the second highest total at the MCG, with the highest being 344/8 by the ICC World XI against Asia XI in January 2005.

England pacer Steven Finn picked up 5/71, with the 2015 World Cup's first hat-trick coming in the last three deliveries of the innings.

Put in to bat, Australia got off to a good start with David Warner (22) and Finch scoring at a good pace. However, two back-to-back wickets of Warner and Shane Watson (0) off pace bowler Stuart Broad brought down the scoring rate.

Australia received another jolt when in-form Steven Smith (5) was bowled by medium pacer Chris Woakes, reducing them for 70/3 in the 11th over.

However, thereon Finch struck a significant 146-run fourth-wicket partnership with skipper Bailey to steady Australia's ship. Finch hammered 12 boundaries and three sixes in his 128-ball innings.

After the duo got out, Maxwell continued the run, smashing 11 boundaries all over the ground in his 40-ball innings.

Lower down the order, Mitchell Marsh and wicketkeeper batsman Brad Haddin chipped in with 23 and 31, respectively.

Finn's hat-trick at the end brought some smiles across the English faces but their batsmen have a huge task ahead as history shows that Australia have never lost after scoring 300-plus runs while batting first.

Other news

'Why is Sonia silent on the insult of Sanatan?', BJP asked - Did I.N.D.I.A. happen to destroy the Hindu religion? Formation of

Tamil Nadu Minister of State Udhayanidhi Stalin had made a controversial comment regarding Sanata

India's developmental partnership outreach going digital

New Delhi, March 19 (IANS) It is India's most understated diplomatic outreach, yet the one with

ISRO: Live streaming of Chandrayaan-3 on YouTube broke the record, and became the most-watched event in the world

India has created history once again. India's Chandrayaan-3 made a successful landing on the moon

Russia-Ukraine War: Russian attack on Ukraine continues for the ninth consecutive day, another Indian student became the victim of the attack

Today is the ninth day of the war between Russia and Ukraine. Russian military attack on Ukraine

Relaxation in age limit for Corona vaccine, CM Kejriwal wrote a letter to PM Modi demanding

New Delhi: Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra

Mobike ambulance service launched in Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Feb 21 (IANS) Chris Hospital Saturday launched a two-wheeler mobile ambulance servic

Energy Crisis: India will become the center of energy connectivity in South Asia regions, and will play a big role

The way the Ukraine war has brought forth the problem of an energy crisis in the whole world, the

G20: PM addressed the conference on women's empowerment, and said - When women are empowered then the world is empowered

The G-20 Ministerial Conference on Women Empowerment is being organized under the Indian Presiden

Which player in the Indian team is the hardest worker? Yashasvi Jaiswal named this player, not Kohli.

Indian team's aggressive opener Yashasvi Jaiswal revealed that Shubman Gill is a very hardworking

Ayodhya rape case: Akhilesh adamant on the demand for DNA test, Awadhesh Prasad said- the accused should be given death penalty

Akhilesh Yadav is adamant on the demand for DNA tests in the Ayodhya rape case. At the same time,