The Herald's Dylan Cleaver was at the MCG yesterday for Australia's win over England. Here are five conclusions he drew from the match.
1. Australia have few weaknesses, bar the lack of a genuine spinner.
They score quickly and bowl quickly. They are going to be extremely hard to beat on home turf. "We've made no secret of it; we're here to win the World Cup," said century-making opener Aaron Finch.
2. England have few obvious strengths.
In Stuart Broad, Steven Finn and James Anderson, they have the makings of a good pace attack, but Finch and Glenn Maxwell made them look ordinary.
3. If the game had been even remotely in the balance, we would be hearing plenty about the final dismissal.
As soon as James Taylor was given out lbw, surely the ball became "dead". The fact James Anderson was then caught short of his ground should be rendered irrelevant, whether the (poor) lbw call was overturned or not. Taylor can rightly feel aggrieved by not getting a century. "I'm not sure that [the decision] was right. That's probably the best way to put it," said England captain Eoin Morgan.
4. Chris Woakes will not have slept well.
Who knows how different things might have been if he had taken a regulation chance off Aaron Finch when the Australian opener was on a duck. It was a portent of things to come. "I played pretty well after that initial chance," Finch said. No kidding.
