This was brutal. This was a painful, embarrassing lesson for England in how to play one-day cricket in an age where they have been left behind in the 50-over game. One of the teams involved in Saturday's showpiece at the Melbourne Cricket Ground have every chance of winning the World Cup and it isn’t England. Australia were always going to be hot favourites in this opening match of the premier one-day tournament in front of 84,336 but this was much worse than England could have imagined. Do not be fooled by the late England runs once the tension had gone from the contest. This was an absolute demolition of Eoin Morgan’s side and their aspirations of springing a Valentine’s Day surprise, as they lost by 111 runs.
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Australia defeated rivals England in front of 84,336 spectators
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Aaron Finch provided the backbone to their innings with 135
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Australia made their highest ever one-day score against England
The game was effectively over by the halfway mark, @placeholder’s death bowling letting them down again with an almost total mystifying lack of yorkers, but England needed to at least make a decent fist of their reply.