World Cup 2019: 5 positive takeaways for Australia from their first warm-up game against England
Australia played England on 25th May in the first of their two Cricket World Cup warm-up matches. Jos Buttler won the toss and opted to field. England decided to play with just 11 players and Australia decided to rest Glenn Maxwell, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc.
All eyes were on the returning duo of David Warner and Steve Smith and the reception that they would receive from the crowds in England. They were booed when they came in to bat but it was a good outing with the bat for both of them, with Warner scoring 43 and Smith scoring a fine century.
Steve Smith and Nathan Lyon were the standout players for Australia in this match. There were also quite a few other performances that Australia will be pleased with after their 12-run win over a strong England side.
Here are some of the positive takeaways for Australia from the match:
#5 Alex Carey's power-hitting display
Alex Carey is being considered by many experts as the weak-link of the Australian batting line-up. He will be relieved to get some runs under his belt leading into the World Cup 2019. Australia were struggling to get a move on when Carey came out to bat with real positive intent, striking some lusty blows early on in his innings.
He managed to take pressure off Steve Smith at the other end who wasn't finding any support until then. Carey was dealing only in boundaries until he departed after scoring a quickfire 30 runs off 14 balls with Tom Curran taking a brilliant catch off Liam Plunkett's bowling.
Australia have a strong top-order and Alex Carey and Marcus Stoinis will have to play the finshers' role and provide a strong finish to the strong foundation laid by the Australian top-order. Carey's power-hitting cameo will be a positive takeaway for Australia from this match.