12 August,2012 07:37 AM IST | | Agencies
Australian captain Will Bosisto won the toss and elected to bowl on a bouncy wicket at Tony Ireland Stadium. A fantastic all-round bowling effort from the Australian side saw them restrict the tournament front runners to 143.
Australia struck early with West Australia's Joel Paris taking out English danger-man Daniel Bell-Drummond for a duck. Paceman Mark Steketee then claimed the valuable wicket of Ben Foakes (2).
New South Wales' quick Gurinder Sandhu was well suited to the fast wicket and had a great day with the ball finishing with figures of 9.3-1-27-3.
Australia's run chase got off to a shaky start with the openers James Peirson and Cameron Bancroft falling in the first two overs to a sharp opening spell by the English opening attack. Bosisto and hard-hitting left-handed batsman Travis Head combined well for a match-winning fourth wicket stand enabling Australia to cruise to victory with 15 overs to spare. Head, who was awarded Man of the Match, hit a solid 57.
Indians in action today
India kick start their campaign today when they take on the West Indies. Captain Unmukt Chand appeared confident of his task. "There's a very strong feeling that we want to win this World Cup. We've put in a lot of hard effort for two years ⦠this is the final thing. It's an emotional thing. We are not thinking of ourselves as individual players," he was quoted as saying in ESPN Cricinfo.u00a0