World Cup 2019: Shahid Afridi thrilled with England’s aggressive batting and all-around effort against Australia

England have made it to the finals of the ICC World Cup 2019 after they defeated Australia and knocked the defending champions out of the tournament with a thumping performance at Edgbaston, Birmingham in the second semi-final. They beat the Kangaroos by 8 wickets and showed why many considered them to be favourites to lift the trophy.

Jason Roy thumped the Australian bowlers on a batting beauty with a brilliant knock of 85 runs in just 65 balls with 5 sixes and 9 fours to his name. The remaining work was done by Jonny Bairstow, Eoin Morgan and Joe Root, as England made 226/2 in just 32.1 overs. Chris Woakes was named the Man of the Match for his performance of 3/20, which included wickets of David Warner, Peter Handscomb and Mitchell Starc.

Shahid Afridi says “Tough luck Australia”

Former Pakistani all-rounder Shahid Afridi took to Twitter and praised the dominating performance of the host nation in the all-important knockout game. He was thrilled to see their all-around control over the opposition and the way they backed the bowlers with aggressive batting. He also mentioned that this edition will now see a first-time World Champion, given that neither England nor New Zealand have won the tournament previously.

Afridi tweeted, “Great all-round performance from team England! Brilliant aggressive batting to back the bowling effort. We will have a new #CWC19 winner and it should be a memorable final. Tough luck Australia #ENGvAUS”

England didn’t start off well as they lost the toss and were asked to bowl first in a ground that had not favoured the team batting second until the league stages. However, the pitch seemed to have turned on its head and helped the English fast bowlers at the start, given that they managed to reduce Australia to 19/3 with Finch bagging a duck, Warner making 9 and Handscomb contributing 4.

It was only due to the 103-run partnership between Smith (85) and Alex Carey (46) and then vital contributions from Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Starc in the lower order, that the Men in Yellow were able to post 223 runs in 49 overs. Chris Woakes picked 3/20, Adil Rashid picked 3/54 and Jofra Archer picked 2/32 for England to setback Australia big time in a crunch match.