England delight as Aussies hold off valiant Scotland | cricket.com.au

Australia’s powerful batters fired late to stop Scotland pulling off one of the biggest upsets at a World Cup as Mitch Marsh’s men held on in a tense final-over victory in their last group-stage match in Saint Lucia.

England breathed a sigh of relief as Marcus Stoinis (59 off 29 balls) continued his tremendous tournament by rescuing the Aussies after a stuttering start to their run chase of 181. His 80-run stand with Travis Head (68 off 49) all but sunk a brave Scottish side at the Daren Sammy Stadium.

Australia, with qualification to the T20 World Cup’s Super Eight stage already guaranteed, got away with a poor fielding performance that saw six catches go down, including three in as many balls. It allowed powerful No.3 Brandon McMullen (60 from 34 balls) and captain Richie Berrington (42 off 31) take Scotland to 5-181, their highest total at a T20 World Cup.

That left Berrington’s men with real hope they could engineer Australia’s first loss to an Associate nation since the 1983 World Cup when a Kim Hughes-captained side fell to Zimbabwe.

Brad Wheal had five runs to defend in his final over but, with three off four needed, Chris Sole dropped a swirling high catch off Tim David, who then iced the game with a towering six to finish with 24 off 14 balls.

“It wasn’t our best fielding effort but it was good to get some batting time into our middle order, and our spinners needed some time in the middle in different situations in the bowling innings,” said Mitchell Starc, who led the pace attack after Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood were rested.

“It was a good result and now we push on to the Super Eights.”

It means England, who had been in the rare position of barracking for their Ashes rivals after beating Namibia earlier in the day, will advance out of Group B into the Super Eights along with Australia.

It is an agonising finish for the impressive Scots, whose lower net run-rate than England ultimately cost them making the final eight of a World Cup for the first time in their history.

“It’s disappointing, we’ve played really good cricket in this tournament,” said McMullen after Scotland’s first ever T20I against Australia.

“The belief was super high going into today’s game. We had a good start in the first innings, we just couldn’t quite back it up. I thought we bowled well at times but then a few big overs at the back-end.

“Unfortunately, it wasn’t our day today but we learnt a lot from the game and the experience was incredible.”

With 60 needed off the final five overs, Stoinis exploded by taking 18 off Michael Leask’s final over before Travis Head slammed three sixes off as many legal deliveries from Safyaan Sharif to rapidly tip the game back in Australia’s favour.

While Head and Stoinis departed in consecutive overs, the latter to a ‘long ball’ from clutch spinner Mark Watt who was superb with 2-34 from four overs, David’s cool head saw his side home with two balls to spare.

Dropped on 15, Head had struggled for fluency on the way to a 45-ball fifty as he was left to anchor Australia’s run chase after they lost early wickets, with both David Warner and captain Mitch Marsh out in the Powerplay.

Watt covered his mouth Stuart-Broad-at-Trent-Bridge style when he bowled Glenn Maxwell to leave the Aussies 3-60 and well behind the asking rate when they needed 107 from the final 10 overs.

Sending his opponents in on what would prove one of the better batting surfaces of the tournament so far, Marsh had injury added to insult when the third of his dropped catches left him with a painful knock to his finger.

The skipper later cleared up that the injury was no issue, joking he “passed the handshake test” post-match.

Marsh and Head’s missed chances in the same Powerplay over from the luckless Starc proved costly as McMullen (put down on 17) and Munsey (dropped on 2) added 89 for the second wicket.

The Durban-born McMullen slammed six sixes as the Scots astutely used the strong westerly breeze coming in off Rodney Bay, before a series of errors allowed the Berrington-led middle-order to keep the runs flowing.

In the space of four deliveries, Adam Zampa dropped Matthew Cross at fine-leg, Marsh put down a tough low catch at cover off Berrington, Matthew Wade fluffed a caught behind off Cross that the Aussies had reviewed for lbw, before Cross was caught out off a knee-high Maxwell full toss.

There was also a curious call not to throw the ball to Stoinis, whose bowling has won praise from the Aussies in this tournament, with Maxwell (2-44) instead bowling his full complement as Australia sent down 12 overs of spin on a pitch taking little turn.

The recalled Ashton Agar opened the bowling and knocked over Michael Jones with an arm ball in a tight first over but conceded 36 from his final three overs.

Nathan Ellis (1-34) ensured the Scottish innings did not get out of hand in its closing stages after their flying start took them to 1-92 from 8.5 overs.

2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup

Australia’s squad: Mitch Marsh (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa

Australia’s Group B fixtures

June 6: Beat Oman by 39 runs

June 9: Beat England by 36 runs

June 12: Beat Namibia by nine wickets

June 16: Beat Scotland by five wickets

Australia’s Super Eight fixtures

21 June: v D2, Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua, 10.30am AEST

23 June: v Afghanistan, Arnos Vale Ground, St Vincent, 10.30am AEST

25 June: v India, Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, St Lucia, 12.30am AEST

Semi-finals to follow if Australia qualify

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