IT may have been nervous times for fans of the Australian men’s cricket team, but the team managed to conjure a 33-run win over England, to eliminate the latter from the 2023 One Day International (ODI) World Cup.

In Saturday night’s game at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, England needed to upset an Aussie side that came in on a four-game winning streak. On the other side of things, the English had only claimed one win, and looked out of sorts for much of the tournament.

The Aussies looked in danger at times on Saturday, but ultimately did enough to get an important win, defeating England by 33 runs.

England won the toss and elected to bowl, backing the team’s pace to unsettle Australia’s changed batting order, with Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Marsh missing, while Marcus Stoinis and Cameron Green came in.

Openers Travis Head (11 off 10) and David Warner (15 off 16) made their intentions clear with some early boundaries, but both departed earlier than expected at the hands of Chris Woakes, who was proving troublesome for the Aussies.

Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne benefited from the fact that both were at the crease within the first six overs, given enough time to build towards solid numbers. The pair put on an important partnership, barrelling the Aussies towards triple-figures in the run column.

After being dropped recently, allrounder Green emphatically returned to the team, playing with plenty of confidence as he engaged in an enthralling duel with Mark Wood. Although Green played on the edge at times, and could have been dismissed far earlier than he was, he played a crucial role for the Aussies, producing consistent boundaries en route to 47 off 52.

Stoinis made the most of his upper body strength to power Australia forward with 35 off 32, while tail-ender Adam Zampa had a crucial cameo, smacking four boundaries to get himself to 29 runs off 19 balls, and the Aussies to a score of 286, all out.

Things could not have gone any better for the Aussie bowling attack to start the second innings, with Jonny Bairstow edging the first Mitch Starc delivery, and Josh Inglis taking a marvellous catch down leg side.

Dawid Malan built slowly, but managed to reach his half-century, as did Ben Stokes, and the pair dragged England back into the match. Australian cricket fans will have not-so-fond memories of Stokes reviving his side in the Ashes in years prior, and he threatened to do so again. However, Zampa struck and dismissed Stokes to get control back in the hands of Australia.

England’s batting lineup began to fall apart, and although Moeen Ali (42 runs) and Woakes (32) enacted some late power hitting to give the team hope, they fell short.

Zampa was named Player of the Match for starring with both bat and ball, taking three wickets to shoot to the top of the leaderboard for the tournament. He capped off an impressive night with an excellent catch in the outfield from a skied delivery.

Australia will take on Afghanistan tomorrow night to book in a spot in the finals.

England 253 (48.1) def. by Australia 286 (49.3)

FIRST INNINGS

Australia – Labuschagne 71 (83), Green 47 (52), Smith 44 (52)
England – Woakes 4/54 (9.3), Rashid 2/38 (10), Wood 2/70 (10)

SECOND INNINGS

England – Stokes 64 (90), Malan 50 (64), Ali 42 (43)
Australia – Zampa 3/21 (10), Hazlewood 2/49 (9.1), Cummins 2/49 (10)