In years to come, people will look at the scorecard of this match and presume that Ben Stokes – with modest bowling figures and a peripheral figure with the bat – played nothing more than a supporting role in this game.
But Stokes, with an outstanding catch and a nerveless final over, played a key part in an England victory that continues a remarkable summer that promised little more than pain and has delivered more promise than most could have anticipated.
After a grim 2014 when they lost nine of their 12 T20Is, including a wretched World T20 campaign, new-look England have now won three in a row and have defeated the No. 2 ranked side.
More importantly, with players such as Stokes involved, they appear to be developing into a team that relishes pressure moments. While some previous England sides have appeared to wilt in the spotlight, here they held their nerve under pressure to secure a five-run victory.
With seven overs to go, it appeared Australia were cruising. Glenn Maxwell and Steven Smith, with his maiden T20I half-century, had added 112 for the third-wicket and the previous four overs had cost 13, 10, 14 and 14 respectively.
But then Maxwell attempted to pull Moeen Ali’s first ball, little more than a dragged-down long-hop really, for six over mid-wicket only to see Stokes, dashing round from long-on, leap to his right and cling on to an outstanding catch.
It was the moment that changed the game. Reece Topley, impressively calm for a man on international debut, bowled Mitchell Marsh with a nicely disguised slower-ball delivered out of the back of the hand before Smith miss-hit to mid-on. Nerves spread through the Australian line-up and with Stokes delivering a fine final over – Australia could manage just six of the 12 runs they required for victory from it – they lost five wickets for 16 runs in the final 14 balls of the innings.
England’s total of 182 had earlier been based around a stand of 135 in 12.2 overs between Moeen and Eoin Morgan after the pair came together with the score in 18 for 2 after two quick wickets for Pat Cummins.
England
JJ Roy c Coulter-Nile b Cummins 11
AD Hales b Cummins 3
MM Ali not out 72
EJG Morgan* c Watson b Coulter-Nile 74
JC Buttler† c Cummins b Starc 11
SW Billings run out (Smith/Starc) 2
BA Stokes not out 1
Extras (lb 3, w 5) 8
Total (5 wickets; 20 overs) 182
Did not batAU Rashid, DJ Willey, ST Finn, RJW Topley
Fall of wickets 1-17 (Hales, 3.3 ov), 2-18 (Roy, 3.6 ov), 3-153 (Morgan, 16.2 ov), 4-168 (Buttler, 17.3 ov), 5-180 (Billings, 19.4 ov)
Bowling
MA Starc 4-0-32-1, NM Coulter-Nile 4-0-24-1, PJ Cummins 4-0-25-2, MR Marsh 2-0-21-0, GJ Maxwell 2-0-12-0, MP Stoinis 1-0-13-0, SR Watson 2-0-33-0, CJ Boyce 1-0-19-0
Australia
DA Warner c Finn b Willey 4
SR Watson b Finn 8
SPD Smith* c Billings b Willey 90
GJ Maxwell c Stokes b Ali 44
MR Marsh b Topley 13
MP Stoinis not out 10
MS Wade† run out (Morgan/Stokes) 2
NM Coulter-Nile c Rashid b Stokes 0
PJ Cummins run out (Morgan/Stokes) 0
MA Starc not out 0-
Extras (lb 5, w 1) 6
Total (8 wickets; 20 overs) 177
Did not batCJ Boyce
Fall of wickets 1-4 (Warner, 0.6 ov), 2-12 (Watson, 1.5 ov), 3-124 (Maxwell, 13.1 ov), 4-161 (Marsh, 17.4 ov), 5-165 (Smith, 18.3 ov), 6-172 (Wade, 19.1 ov), 7-174 (Coulter-Nile, 19.4 ov), 8-175 (Cummins, 19.5 ov)
Bowling
DJ Willey 4-0-34-2, ST Finn 4-0-39-1, RJW Topley 4-0-35-1, AU Rashid 3-0-32-0, BA Stokes 4-0-29-1, MM Ali 1-0-3-1
MATCH DETAILS
Toss – Australia, who chose to field
Series – England won the one-off match
T20I debuts – MP Stoinis (Australia); RJW Topley (England)
Player of the match – MM Ali (England)
Umpires – MA Gough and RT Robinson
TV umpire – RJ Bailey
Match referee – JJ Crowe (New Zealand)
Reserve umpire – RK Illingworth
