Twitter Reactions: A glittery ton from Steve Smith helps Australia win the thriller
Australia had a great warm-up game against England and won the match by 12 runs.
A thrilling contest greeted the fans when two of the biggest teams in World Cup 2019 faced each other. The game between England and Australia was thoroughly entertaining. Fortunes kept swinging either way right till the end after England won the toss and opted to bowl first. Although they played a game against the Windies, this was the first official warm-up game for the returning duo of Steve Smith and David Warner. While skipper Aaron Finch and Shaun Marsh scored 14 and 30 runs respectively, Warner got out for 43.
Though, this game was a fairytale comeback for Steve Smith. He was greeted with the chants of ‘cheat’ when he entered the ground. This same crowd rose up in applause by the time he finished his innings. He looked extremely determined and went about his business in a professional way. He scored 116 runs from 102 balls in an innings that included 8 fours and 3 sixes. 31 and 30 runs scored by Usman Khawaja and Alex Carey helped Australia finish with a score of 297/9 in 50 overs.
Australia bowl exceptionally in the middle overs and at the death
England lost Jonny Bairstow early in the chase for 12 runs. His partner, Jason Roy also failed to make the most of his start and perished after getting 32 runs. At this stage, James Vince and skipper Jos Buttler came to the rescue. The former played a great knock and accrued 64 runs. The stand-in captain, though, was aggressive in his approach and took just 31 balls to score 52 runs. Even though England seemed to be in the driver’s seat at this point in time, some tight overs and few wickets catapulted the pressure back to them.
The Aussies were clinical in the middle overs. But their team was always 10 or 15 runs short. However, the ‘Men in Yellow’ kept plugging in with regular wickets and applied great pressure on the home team towards the end. 15 runs were required off the last over. Liam Plunkett tried to hit the first ball out but holed out to Glenn Maxwell at deep mid-wicket. England’s innings culminated with Jofra Archer’s run-out in his maiden outing with the bat for England.
Twitterati couldn’t control the happiness after watching Steve Smith get to triple figures. The fans felt that it couldn’t have been a better comeback for the former captain and want him to carry the momentum forward. Finch was brilliant with his captaincy and field changes as well. The bowlers were cheered for their efforts.
Here is how Twitterati reacted to Australia’s win over the hosts:
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