Australian batter Travis Head played a valuable knock of 59 as the Aussies defeated England in the first T20I at Southampton. After being asked to bat first, Head along with his opening partner Matt Short formed a brilliant 86-run standto get the visitors off to a flying start.
Head targeted England quick Sam Curran in the fifth over and totally obliterated him by scoring 30 runs in the over, with 3 boundaries and sixes each. Head hit boundaries on the first 2 balls before smashing Curran for 3 consecutive sixes. On the final ball, Head hit the third boundary of the over to take Australia’s score to 71/0 after 5 overs.
Despite an incredible start to the innings, Australia would finish at a seemingly below-par total of 179. However, in reply, the England batters completely faltered against the Australian bowling attack. Sean Abbott picked up 3 wickets while Adam Zampa and Josh Hazlewood took 2 scalps each as the hosts got bowled out for 151 runs in 19.2 overs and lost the match by 28 runs.
After the match, stand-in England captain Phil Salt who led the team in the match due to Jos Buttler’s injury, reflected on his side’s disappointing display.
“Everything was good (about captaincy) apart from the result. Maybe we could have done a bit better but it has given something to get clarity on in the next game,” Salt said.
Australia captain Mitchell Marsh praised the opening pair of Head and Short for their “exciting” start before also lauding Zampa and Hazlewood.
“We’re lucky to have guys like Adam Zampa and Josh Hazlewood in our team, especially for some of our younger guys to learn from. I went back to them and they both applied the pressure when needed,” Marsh said.
