World Cup 2019: Are Australia on their way to taking home yet another trophy?
Australia have become the first team to qualify for the semi-finals of the ICC World Cup 2019. They are now the table toppers with six wins in seven matches.
They reached the semifinals by defeating their arch-rivals England in Match 32 of the tournament held at Lord's on Tuesday. Australia comprehensively won the match by 64 runs, thanks to a century by the skipper Aaron Finch and a five-wicket haul from Jason Behrendorff.
Australia have been impressive right from the beginning of the tournament, defying the low expectations in the wake of sandpaper-gate. They started their campaign against Afghanistan at Bristol and won the match easily by 7 wickets. David Warner, was was at the center of the ball-tampering scandal and was returning to international cricket after a one-year ban, scored 89 runs and won the match for Australia.
In the second match, against West Indies, Australia just managed to win the match thanks to Nathan Coulter-Nile's 92-run knock and Mitchell Starc's five wickets.
Australia faced their first defeat at the hands of India. They lost the game by 36 runs after their bowlers had conceded a few too many runs.
But that setback seems to have been a wake-up call, as they haven't lost a game since then. They defeated Pakistan by 41 runs at Taunton, then Sri Lanka by 87 runs at The Oval. Australia then played against Bangladesh at Nottingham and won the match by 48 runs.
Both the openers, David Warner and Aaron Finch, are in the best form of their career, evident from the fact that they both are placed at number 1 and number 2 respectively in the leading run-scorers' list. And their batting hasn't even fully come to the party yet; Glenn Maxwell, their most explosive batsman, hasn't contributed much so far.
In the bowling department, Starc is the key bowler for Australia and he is also the leading wicket-taker of the tournament as of now. With the addition of Jason Behrendroff and Nathan Lyon, the Aussie bowling attack is looking good.
Australia will play against New Zealand and South Africa on June 29 and July 6 respectively. They would like to finish the round-robin stage at the top of the table, which would guarantee them an easier semifinal match-up.
Australia have already won the World Cup five times and are one of the biggest contenders to win this World Cup too. They have proven time and again that they excel at the big stage, and this tournament is turning out to be yet another example of that.
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