The Latest: England fighting back after slumping to 53-4

By Associated Press 26 June 2019, 12:00AM

LONDON (AP) — The Latest on Day 27 of the Cricket World Cup (all times local):

4:30 p.m.

England slumped to 53-4 and was 109-4 against Australia after 25 overs of its chase for 286 at Lord's.

Left-arm seamers Jason Behrendorff and Mitchell Starc took two wickets each, making the ball swing and taking advantage of England's gung-ho approach.

Behrendorff bowled James Vince on the second ball of the innings with an inswinger, and Joe Root went lbw to Starc on 8 in the fourth over.

Captain Eoin Morgan fell for a trap, pulling Starc straight to Pat Cummins on the fine leg boundary on 4 in the sixth over.

Cummins also caught the next wicket, when opener Jonny Bairstow, on 27, pulled at a ball that wasn't all that short and gave Behrendorff his second wicket.

Ben Stokes was 49 not out and Jos Buttler 16 not out.

Australia will be the first team confirmed in the semifinals with a win.

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2:10 p.m.

Australia wasted a great start by captain Aaron Finch and David Warner against England to be limited to 285-7 at Lord's.

Australia was 185-3 in the 36th over after Finch was out for 100, his second century of the tournament. A big 300-plus score was on the cards but the batsmen conspired to get themselves out.

Finch and Warner, who made 53, shared 123 in their third century stand of the tournament, making England's gamble to bowl first apparently backfire.

But England rallied from the Finch wicket on. The only other major contributors were Steve Smith and Alex Carey, who both made 38.

The wickets were shared by five bowlers, with paceman Chris Woakes returning the best figures of 2-46.

Australia has successfully bowled second on all four previous occasions in the tournament, including its last three matches when it defended 307 against Pakistan, 334 against Sri Lanka, and 381 against Bangladesh last Thursday. The Australians also defended 288 against West Indies before losing to India batting second.

England has lost two of its three chases, including a target of 233 against Sri Lanka last Friday.

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1 p.m.

Australia captain Aaron Finch reached his second century of the tournament only to depart on the next ball at Lord's.

Chris Woakes' throw in from the outfield was too high and a chance to run out Steve Smith was missed, but allowed Finch to take a second run and reach his 15th one-day international hundred and seventh against England.

Finch had taken 115 balls and hit 11 boundaries and two sixes.

But on the next ball, he top-edged a hook at Jofra Archer and Woakes took an easy catch at fine leg.

The wicket gave Archer a tournament-leading 16th.

Australia was 185-3 in the 36th over and Glenn Maxwell joined Smith in the middle.

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12:50 p.m.

Virat Kohli didn't see any reason to rest on a rainy day in Manchester, spending time batting in the indoor nets to prepare for India's next group game against West Indies.

Kohli was one of the four Indian players who practiced indoors under the watchful eye of coach Ravi Shastri after the scheduled session at Old Trafford was washed out. Fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who has been sidelined for two games because of a hamstring strain, did a light workout.

India is coming off an unexpectedly tight win over Afghanistan at Southampton on Saturday and faces a West Indies lineup that needs to win to remain in semifinal contention. West Indies had a five-run loss to New Zealand — which along with India is unbeaten — when Carlos Brathwaite was caught on the long-on boundary attempting to hit a six that would have given the Caribbean team a comeback victory.

Kohli was fined 25% of his match fee after the 11-run win over Afghanistan for excessive appealing in the 29th over when he asking for an lbw decision.

He accepted the breach of the player code of conduct.

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12:15 p.m.

Captain Aaron Finch and David Warner shared another fantastic start in leading Australia to 138-1 after 25 overs against England at Lord's.

The century stand came in the 18th over, Finch reached his fifty in the 19th, and Warner his fifty in the 20th.

Warner was out in the 23rd, taken aback by Moeen Ali and mistimed to backward point, where Joe Root juggled the catch. Warner made 53 off 61 balls.

Finch was on 74, with Usman Khawaja on 6.

Finch lost the toss and was made to bat first but he wasn't overly fussed. He and Warner have been the best opening partnership in the tournament, by far, and built their third century stand in seven matches.

England captain Eoin Morgan hoped his bowlers could cash in on muggy conditions after heavy overnight rain, and cloud overhead, but they could only get a tough chance glancing off James Vince's fingertips offered by Finch in the sixth over. Finch also survived a good lbw review in the seventh.

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10:10 a.m.

England won the toss and chose to bowl first against defending champion Australia at Lord's.

England was unchanged following its second loss of the tournament, to Sri Lanka last Friday, when it also decided to chase and failed.

Australia made two changes, giving offspinner Nathan Lyon his first start of the tournament in place of Adam Zampa, and playing Jason Behrendorff instead of Nathan Coulter-Nile.

Australia has won its last three games batting first and defending.

After heavy rain overnight, conditions are dry and muggy, and expected to become partly sunny in the afternoon.

Lineups:

England: Jonny Bairstow, James Vince, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (captain), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood.

Australia: Aaron Finch (captain), David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Lyon.

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6 a.m.

England goes into the Cricket World Cup group match against Australia at Lord's on Tuesday having dominated their recent matchups.

England has won 12 of the last 14.

In World Cup history, however, Australia has won five out of seven.

England opener Jason Roy remained unavailable after tearing his left hamstring while playing the West Indies 11 days ago, while Australia can pick from a fully fit squad.

Australia opener David Warner has centuries in two of his last three matches, while England mainstay Joe Root has 50-plus scores in six of his last seven matches, including two centuries.

The game will be played on the same dry pitch on which Pakistan defended 308 against South Africa on Sunday.

The forecast is for the game to start under cloud which will partly clear after noon.

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More AP cricket: www.apnews.com/cricket and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

By Associated Press 26 June 2019, 12:00AM
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