The rivalry between England and Australia is the oldest in cricket but the balance of power has been shifted to the former recently changing the landscape of their battle.
For decades, Australia were the strongest side in world cricket and England, a timid side, had to surrender meekly in most of the times. However, the English side has become the most devastating side in the limited over cricket over the last few years while Australian’s might has been declined sharply.
As a result England have been the dominating and turning the table completely. It was evident in the super 12 stage match between these two nations at Dubai International cricket stadium. It was an absolute demolition of England against Australia.
First, England bowlers bowled out Aussies for a meager 125 on a good batting pitch and then England top order cruised to victory with a flourish of boundaries all around the park.
From the late 90s, Aussies had ruled the white ball cricket, in 50 over format, winning three consecutive World Cup titles: 1999 in England, 2003 in South Africa and 2007 in Caribbean.
India broke their dominance in 2011 by winning the elite tournament in their home soil but Australia regained the crown in 2015 again at their own backyards.
During the dominant era the features of Australian cricket were the fearsome batting, aggressive bowling and spirited fielding. Even when the batting side lost early wickets, they had the resources and courage to continue the onslaught, keeping the opponents in the back foot.
Batsmen like Mark Waugh, Adam Gilchrist, Mathew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn, Michael Clarke, and Steve Waugh carried that aggression in late 90s and 2000s era to establish themselves as the most dominant batting force at that time.
Now England are doing the same, with more aggression in the game with the bat.
Since 2015, a new force has risen to white ball cricket and that is England who are winning matches with dominance in all parts of the world.
England have a blistering batting unit in the likes of Jason Roy, Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone, Eoin Morgan, Bern Stokes, Moeen Ali who have close to hundred or more than hundred strike-rate in ODI cricket and around 140 strike-rate in T20 cricket.
This bunch of players are playing fearless cricket, which can be a treat to eyes for cricket fans.
All the players in the England batting line-up are six hitters and their hitting abilities have developed with proper cricketing shots, not like mad swing or complete slog.
During the Dubai match on Saturday, when Jason Roy coming out of the crease and smacked Pat Cummins over mid wicket for a 82-meter over boundary, it was a beautiful display of power hitting and aggression and an indication of England’s batting style.
Buttler was ballistic in the match as the right hander smashed an unbeaten 32 ball 71 with five fours and five sixes.
It was a masterclass batting of power hitting by Buttler and yet again he showed his class that is why he has been considered as one of the most destructive batsmen in short formats in this era.
Buttler’s back-to-back sixer against Mitchel Starc in the sixth over went 94 and 95 metres. And from the press box, it seems that the ball would travel all the way to the top tier of Dubai stadium.
Watching England top order blazing all their guns against the bowling line up of Starc, Cummins, Josh Hazelwood, Azam Zampa was something great to watch. And this is something they are doing over the last few years in white ball cricket.
England are already the reigning champion of 50 over format. And a performance like this against their arch rivals Australia on Saturday’s game makes a statement that they are a serious contender of T20 World Cup as well which they had missed narrowly in the previous edition, 216 due to a Carlos Brathwaite’s once in a lifetime heroics.
One thing is sure, with this brand of cricket, England will dominate the white ball cricket in coming years like Australia did for a decade in early 2000s.
And for cricket fans, it will be exciting, enjoying the fearless game of England.