Melbourne, Feb 14 (IANS) Scoreboard of the Australia innings against England in their World Cup opener at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) here Saturday.
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.
Australia
David Warner b Broad 22
Aaron Finch run out (Morgan) 135
Shane Watson c Buttler b Broad 0
Steven Smith b Woakes 5
George Bailey b Finn 55
Glenn Maxwell c Root b Finn 66
Mitchell Marsh c Root b Finn 23
Brad Haddin c Broad b Finn 31
Mitchell Johnson c Anderson b Finn 0
Mitchell Starc not out 0
Extras (lb 2, w 3) 5
Total (nine wickets in 50 overs) 342
Fall of wickets: 1-57 (Warner, 7.3 overs), 2-57 (Watson, 7.4), 3-70 (Smith, 10.3), 4-216 (Finch, 36.3), 5-228 (Bailey, 38.1), 6-281 (Marsh, 45.1), 7-342 (Haddin, 49.4), 8-342 (Maxwell, 49.5), 9-342 (Johnson, 49.6)
Bowling
James Anderson 10-0-67-0
Stuart Broad 10-0-66-2
Chris Woakes 10-0-65-1
Steven Finn 10-0-71-5
Moeen Ali 9-0-60-0
Joe Root 1-0-11-0
Match details:
Toss: England chose to field
Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka)
TV umpire: Billy Bowden (New Zealand)
Match referee: Jeff Crowe (New Zealand)
Reserve umpire: Joel Wilson (West Indies)