Australia v England
Wisden's review of the first match, Australia v England
15-Apr-2016
At Sydney, January 16, 2015 (day/night). Australia won by three wickets. Australia 5pts. Toss: England.
Australia were in front from the start, as Starc used the brief window of swing offered by the white Kookaburra on a dazzlingly sunny day to pin Bell and Taylor in the first three balls. Starc's eventual four for 42 earned him the match award; he suggested Australia had "reopened a few scars" from the 2013-14 Ashes. There was, though, a welcome return to form for Morgan, England's newly installed captain. After a single fifty in one-day internationals in the previous 12 months, he made 121, the first hundred by an England one-day captain in Australia. But so tamely did his side give away their wickets in the middle overs - no one else reached 30 - that Morgan accounted for more than half their runs. Warner clumped a typically pugnacious 127 in reply - his first one-day international hundred in almost three years - and a calm 37 from Steve Smith put the game beyond doubt. Australia's rush to reach their target inside 40 overs, and earn a bonus point, produced a late flurry of wickets. Woakes finished with four, but it was the 61 unused balls, rather than the three untaken wickets, that reflected the gulf between the sides. Man of the Match: M. A. Starc. Attendance: 26,045.
Australia were in front from the start, as Starc used the brief window of swing offered by the white Kookaburra on a dazzlingly sunny day to pin Bell and Taylor in the first three balls. Starc's eventual four for 42 earned him the match award; he suggested Australia had "reopened a few scars" from the 2013-14 Ashes. There was, though, a welcome return to form for Morgan, England's newly installed captain. After a single fifty in one-day internationals in the previous 12 months, he made 121, the first hundred by an England one-day captain in Australia. But so tamely did his side give away their wickets in the middle overs - no one else reached 30 - that Morgan accounted for more than half their runs. Warner clumped a typically pugnacious 127 in reply - his first one-day international hundred in almost three years - and a calm 37 from Steve Smith put the game beyond doubt. Australia's rush to reach their target inside 40 overs, and earn a bonus point, produced a late flurry of wickets. Woakes finished with four, but it was the 61 unused balls, rather than the three untaken wickets, that reflected the gulf between the sides. Man of the Match: M. A. Starc. Attendance: 26,045.