England vs Australia, 2020: 1st T20I – Australia’s mess-up, England's rare success in defending a low score and more stats

Australia’s return to International cricket was marked by England pulling off an unlikely win in the Southampton T20I while defending the target of 163. Jos Buttler’s 29-ball 44 and Dawid Malan’s 66 from only 43 balls helped the English team to reach 162/7. David Warner (58) and Aaron Finch (46) shared a partnership of 98 runs for the first wicket in only 11 overs.

A couple of boundaries from Steve Smith took the total to 124/1 by end of 14th over as the Aussies raced towards a comfortable win. But in the next 15 balls, Australia lost four wickets for nine runs while the No.5 batsman Marcus Stoinis (23*) could hit only one boundary in the 18 balls faced towards the end as the Aussies fell three runs short of a win.

Here are all the statistical highlights from England’s narrow victory in Southampton on Friday:

England’s rare success in defending a low total:

163 – The target of 163 in this game is the 2nd lowest target which England defended successfully in a home T20I match. The lowest is 154 against India during the 2009 WT20 game at the Lord’s.

Australia’s terrible mess-up:

98 – The partnership of 98 between Aaron Finch and David Warner is the 2nd highest opening stand during an unsuccessful T20I run-chase. The highest is 126 between Ireland’s Paul Stirling and Kevin O’Brien against Afghanistan last year while chasing a target of 279.

60.1 – Australia’s opening stand of 98 accounted for 60.1% of the 163-run target making it the highest proportion of target completed during an unsuccessful T20I chase in Men’s cricket. (Unaffected matches)

The previous highest was 50.8 also by Australia when Finch added 94 with Shaun Marsh during their 185-run chase in the 2016 MCG T20I against India. Overall, this is the 4th highest % of target scored through opening stand during an unsuccessful T20I chase with the top three coming in Women’s T20Is.

The highest is 73.6% by Bangladesh Women (81/110) against South Africa Women in the 2013 Potchefstroom T20I. South Africa Women occupies the next two spots as they had 64.9% (96/148) against England Women in the 2016 Paarl T20I and 63.5% (73/115) during the 2009 Cape Town T20I against West Indies Women.

Finch @ 2000:

62 – Innings Aaron Finch needed for completing 2000 runs in the T20I cricket; the 2nd fastest to the milestone after Virat Kohli (56). Finch is the 10th player to 2000 T20I runs in Men’s cricket and the 21st player to reach the milestone across both Men’s and Women’s cricket. He is also the only player to have a batting strike rate over 140.

1022 – Warner and Finch’s pair completed 1000 partnership runs in the T20I format with the 98-run stand on Friday. They are the 2nd Australian pair after Warner and Shane Watson (1154) to complete 1000 T20I partnership runs in Men’s cricket.

Hat-trick fifties for Warner:

1 – David Warner became the first Australian to score three or more consecutive 50+ scores on two different occasions in T20I cricket. Warner smashed 50+ scores in three consecutive innings during the 2019-20 home season. Virat Kohli (3), Martin Guptill (3), Chris Gayle (2) and Mohammad Hafeez (2) are the other players to have two streaks of three or more 50+ scores in Men’s T20I cricket.

A spin heavy innings from Australia:

11 – The 11 overs bowled by the spin bowlers during England’s innings are the 2nd most number of overs bowled by Australian spinners in a Men’s T20I. They bowled 12 overs of spin during the 2018 Dubai T20I against Pakistan.

11 – The 11 overs bowled by Australian spinners in this game are the 2nd most number of overs that England faced from spin bowlers in a home T20I. India bowled 12 overs of spin during the 2014 Birmingham T20I against the hosts.