ICC Champions Trophy 2017: 5 reasons why Australia did not make it to the semi-final

Steve Smith looks on as Australia failed to impress against England and crashed out

Even before they announced their 15-member squad which would attempt bringing home a third Champions Trophy title after consecutive ones in 2006 and 2009, there were huge expectations from the Australian outfit to repeat their heroics in the 2017 edition.

Their strengths included a highly bankable top order comprising David Warner and Steven Smith, besides possessing a battery of dangerous fast bowlers in Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and James Pattinson. However, much to the disappointment of their supporters, Australia fell short of a semi-final place, five reasons for which have been mentioned.

#1 Lacklustre performance against England

Australia started the Champions Trophy as favourites, but wash-outs against New Zealand and Bangladesh left their fate hanging. Thus, defeating a strong England unit remained the only way out for them to qualify for the semi-finals.

The must-win match began well for Australia after they were 136/1. But as Aaron Finch attempted to accelerate, he fell for a well-compiled 68. That pulled the trigger for England, and ten overs later, Australia sat at 181/4. Travis Head and Glenn Maxwell joined hands to tally 58, but a splendid Jason Roy catch ended Maxwell’s stay and commenced another Australian collapse.

Mark Wood, with a career-best 4/33, and Adil Rashid, who got 4/41, made Australia stare at a below-par score, but a late assault from Head, who remained unbeaten on 71, dragged the Aussies to 277/9.

The English chase started nervously with the score 35/3, before which Eoin Morgan had been dropped already by Matthew Wade. But then the Australian bowlers were either too short or too full, as Morgan and Ben Stokes bashed the bowling at will and for the first time as captain, Steven Smith looked clueless.

Jos Buttler survived twice when Maxwell dropped a sitter and Pat Cummins misjudged one. England won by 40 runs through DLS, and it was a shame that Australia’s only result-oriented match also ended in rain.