Birmingham:England advanced to the ICC World Cup finals after 27 years as they thrashed Defending Champions Australia by eight wickets in the World Cup semi-final match here at Edgbaston on Thursday.
England are now in their fourth World Cup final while New Zealand reached their second successive final in a World Cup. In 2015, New Zealand had lost to Australia in a one-sided title clash while England had entered World Cup finals in 1975, 1987 and 1992 before 2019.
Jason Roy (85 off 65 balls) and Jonny Bairstow (34 off 43 balls) initially led England's charge towards their first World Cup final since 1992, dominating Australia's bowlers as they chased down a modest target of 224.
The two openers raced to 94 without loss in the 15th over, looking untroubled against the defending champions' attack, led by left-arm paceman Mitchell Starc.Roy, who missed three matches earlier in the tournament due to an injury, played handsomely, hitting Starc and Nathan Lyon for sixes as the host nation closed in on a Lord's final against New Zealand on Sunday.
Nothing was going into the visitor's favour and were desperate for a wicket to stop the hosts from advancing towards victory.
Finally, Australian bowlers got a chance to quench their wicket thirst when Jonny Bairstow with Roy after successfully leading his team near to the target walked to the pavilion on a score of 34 runs in the 17.2 over. He was lbw by Mitchell Starc.
Though the visitors were no where in the one sided game but Bairstow departure brought some relief for the Kangaroos though it wasn't enough as the damage was already done for the defending champions.(UNI)
