Pat Cummins had won the toss and elected to bowl first. Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins tried to vary their length in the early half of the innings and were rewarded with the prized scalps of the English openers.
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It was Phil Salt to go back to the hut first, and Pat Cummins drew the first blood after sneaking the outside edge.
Jason Roy who failed to bounce back on his comeback and his sticks were dismantled by an inswinging jaffa from Mitch Starc.
The seamers drew the first four wickets for Australia. James Vince or Sam Billings couldn’t hang around much
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At this the stage seemed difficult for a 200 score for England but then it was the South-African-bred Dawid Malan who took the visiting side to more than a respectable total and got some weight on the scoreboard.
Skipper Jos Buttler glued a 52 runs stand with the Malan but was soon dismissed by Adam Zampa at the edge of his 30s
Malan did look scratchy initially the innings and was also given a chance in his 30s.
The left-hander made sure that the Aussies were paid for it and went on to score the highest run scored by an England player on Adelaide Oval in ODIs.
Adam Zampa removed him at the fag end of the innings and England’s no.3 fell for 134 off 128 deliveries. But England managed to get to a formidable total of 287 in their 50 overs.
In replay, the left-handed opening pair of Travis Head and David Warner got off to a terrific start smashing boundaries all over the park and scoring at a good rate adding 65 runs in the first powerplay.
The opening pair added 147 runs in 19.4 overs with Head losing his wicket to Chris Jordan. David Warner was looking good for a century as he added 53 with Steve Smith but fell short getting out for 86.
Steve Smith announced his return to form with another half-century and finished the game scoring 80 not out as wickets tumbled around him.
In the end it was a comfortable chase for the Aussies who got over the line with 19 balls to spare and 6 wickets in hand.
David Willey was the pick of the bowlers for England with a couple of wickets to his name with Liam Dawson and Jordan picking up a wicket apiece. It was an overall poor performance from the dual world champions as they lost their feet in the opening encounter.
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