England heaped insult upon injury by beating Australia in the first T20 in Adelaide, debutant Chris Woakes sealing victory from the final ball of the match.
Australia made a flying start to their innings, opening batsman Shane Watsom smashing a brutal 59 off just 31 balls. When Watson departed in the ninth over, Australia had 83 runs on the board but the rest of Australia’s batsmen were unable to follow Watson’s lead. A combination of cautious Australian batting and astute English bowling kept the hosts to 4-157 from their 20 overs.
England’s innings began in a whirl of activity, with Ian Bell dropped off the first ball of the match before belting three straight boundaries off Shaun Tait’s bowling.
However, the returning Brett Lee struck in his first over, taking the wicket of England keeper-batsman Steve Davies.
An assured innings from Eoin Morgan, who scored 43 off 33 balls, brought England to within sight of victory before, in the 16th over, Watson took two wickets in as many balls.
England still required 27 runs from the last four overs with just three wickets in hand, but a useful innings from Woakes, who finished unbeaten with 19 runs off 15 balls, proved decisive, the first-gamer scoring the winning single of the final ball of the innings.
