The series decider of the England vs Australia series is all geared for an exciting finish. After suffering an early blow from Mitchell Starc, the English batting line-up came back like they always do on the back of a terrific century from the opener Jonny Bairstow. But when things looked under control for England, Aaron Finch unleashed Pat Cummins who uprooted Bairstow’s stumps with a perfect off-cutter.
After losing early wickets, England opener Jonny Bairstow and middle-order batsman Sam Billings stitched together an amazing partnership to take England to a comfortable position. Bairstow rolled is way towards an amazing century and started to accelerate his innings after that. Just when he was about to shift gears, Aaron Finch unleashed Pat Cummins who bowled a perfect off-cutter to dismiss the English opener. Cummins rolled his fingers to completely bamboozle Bairstow. The delivery ‘spun’ a mile and hit the top of off stump, thereby ending a marvellous innings. The incident happened in the 41st over, the ball pitched outside off stump and spun back sharply and went through the gap between Bairstow’s bat and pad.
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The series decider was started in the most brutal way possible by Cummins’ bowling companion Mitchell Starc. He ripped apart Jason Roy and Joe Root in the very first two balls to shift the momentum in favour of the Aussies quite early on in the innings. But a well-controlled and calculated approach from Jonny Bairstow and Sam Billings ensured that England was comfortably placed later on in the innings. From 96-4, Bairstow and Billings put on 114 runs for the fifth wicket. His century came from 116 balls and included 10 fours and two sixes. After the fall of his wicket, Chris Woakes carried on with the proceedings as he scored 53 runs off 39 balls. England finished their innings on 302-7. Fifty-three runs came from the last five overs. Australia would need a record run chase at the Manchester to seal the series.
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