AUSTRALIA’S Alex Carey is hit by a delivery from England fast bowler Jofra Archer .—AFP
Asked how it felt to help take England to within touching distance of their first World Cup crown, Woakes said his team had tried their best to block out the potentially historic nature of their campaign.
“We have tried not to think about getting to the final, it hasn’t sunk in yet,” he said.
He added: “We were tipped as favourites so it was important to get to the semi-final in the first place and then to win this in this fashion against this Australia side on the best ground in the world is amazing.”
England captain Eoin Morgan said it was the confidence of his side which paid off handsomely..
“Having beaten India at this ground, we’d have come here with similar confidence, taken the momentum from the group stages,” Morgan said. “We talk about getting better and better, we set the tone from ball one and got on top.
“Looking back to where we were in 2015, it’s a dramatic improvement. Everyone in the dressing-room can take credit. We want to make the most of the opportunity.”
Morgan’s Australian counterpart Finch admitted England were deserving winners after outplaying his team in all three departments.
Losing to their arch-rivals in front of a gleeful Edgbaston crowd was a painful way for Australia to surrender the trophy they had won four times in the past five tournaments.
But Finch, who was out for a duck, conceded England had been far superior.
“We were totally outplayed today. We expected the new ball to seam a little but they bowled a great length, hitting the stumps a lot,” Finch said. “We had to have a lot things go right for us. We had to take our chances and bowl them out.
“We tried to take wickets but when you are aggressive with the ball and they are aggressive with the bat, things can happen very quickly.”
England openers Jason Roy, who hit 85 from 65 balls, and Jonny Bairstow, who made 34, took the game away from Australia with a superb 124-run partnership for the first wicket.
“They played exceptionally well. We know how dominant they are when they get on top. You’ve got a very good cricket team in England,” Finch said.
Although Australia had beaten England easily in the group stage at Lord’s, they were a shadow of the team that eased into the semi-finals with seven wins from nine matches.
For just the second time in the past seven World Cups, Australia have failed to make the final, but Finch said he was proud of his team’s efforts 12 months after they were crushed 5-0 by England in a one-day international series.
“We have a lot of positives from the campaign. We’ve come a long way from when we were in England a year ago,” he said. “We came here thinking we could win the tournament. We’ve had backs to the wall and character shown and I’m proud of how the group have progressed but it still hurts. “
Scoreboard
AUSTRALIA:
Batsmen & mode of dismissals R B 4s 6s SRD.A. Warner c Bairstow b Woakes 9 11 2 0 81.81A.J. Finch lbw b Archer 0 1 0 0 0.00S.P.D. Smith run out 85 119 6 0 71.42P.S.P. Handscomb b Woakes 4 12 0 0 33.33A.T. Carey c sub b Rashid 46 70 4 0 65.71M.P. Stoinis lbw b Rashid 0 2 0 0 0.00G.J. Maxwell c Morgan b Archer 22 23 2 1 95.65P.J. Cummins c Root b Rashid 6 10 0 0 60.00M.A. Starc c Buttler b Woakes 29 36 1 1 80.55J.P Behrendorff b Wood 1 4 0 0 25.00N.M. Lyon not out 5 6 0 0 83.33
EXTRAS (LB-6, W-10) 16 - - - --
TOTAL (all out, 49 overs) 223 - - - --FALL OF WKTS: 1-4 (Finch, 1.1 ov), 2-10 (Warner, 2.4 ov), 3-14 (Handscomb, 6.1 ov), 4-117 (Carey, 27.2 ov), 5-118 (Stoinis, 27.6 ov), 6-157 (Maxwell, 34.5 ov), 7-166 (Cummins, 37.4 ov), 8-217 (Smith, 47.1 ov), 9-217 (Starc, 47.2 ov), 10-223 (Behrendorff, 48.6 ov).BOWLING: Woakes 8-0-20-3; Archer 10-0-32-2 (2w); Stokes 4-0-22-0; Wood 9-0-45-1 (4w); Plunkett 8-0-44-0 (3w); Adil Rashid 10-0-54-3 (1w).
ENGLAND:
Batsmen & mode of dismissals R B 4s 6s SRJ.J. Roy c Carey b Cummins 85 65 9 5 130.76J.M. Bairstow lbw b Starc 34 43 5 0 79.06J.E. Root not out 49 46 8 0 106.52 E.J.G. Morgan not out 45 39 8 0 115.38 EXTRAS (LB-1, W-12) 13 - - - -- TOTAL (for two wkts, 32.1 overs) 226 - - - --FALL OF WKTS: 1-124 (Bairstow, 17.2 ov), 2-147 (Roy, 19.4 ov). DID NOT BAT: B.A. Stokes, J.C. Buttler, C.R. Woakes, L.E. Plunkett, Adil Rashid, J.C. Archer, M.A. Wood.BOWLING: Behrendorff8.1-2-38-0 (1w); Starc 9-0-70-1 (3w); Cummins 7-0-34-1 (2w); Lyon 5-0-49-0; Smith 1-0-21-0 (1w); Stoinis 2-0-13-0 (1w).
RESULT: England won by eight wickets.UMPIRES: H.D.P.K. Dharmasena (Sri Lanka) and M. Erasmus (South Africa).TV UMPIRE: C.B. Gaffaney (New Zealand).MATCH REFEREE: R.S. Madugalle (Sri Lanka).MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Chris Woakes. FINAL: England vs New Zealand at Lord’s on Sunday.
Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2019