A fresh-faced England team was defeated by a more established Australian side, losing the first T20I by 28 runs on Wednesday.
The hosts fielded three T20I debutants in Jamie Overton, Jordan Cox and Jacob Bethel but three key figures in the Australian game wrote the story. First, there was the thunderous performance of Travis Head, who scored 59 off 23 balls to set an imposing target of 180 that could have been even higher had England not made a comeback with spin.
When it came time to fight back, Adam Zampa's twist was tricky and his leg prevented him from hitting the middle overs, resulting in the loss of two wickets. England finally found some hope when Liam Livingstone took them to 37, but tall fast bowler Josh Hazlewood hit the stumps in the 14th over to make it 108 for six. The joy of this new England line-up would have to wait another day.
The last time Australia's white-ball team visited England, in the summer of lockdown four years ago, a lot has changed since then. The hosts were the team to follow, Eoin Morgan's world-beating 50-overs were still going strong and Aaron Finch's men were looking to prove themselves. Australia have since won two World Cups and become experts at the shorter form. In Southampton, they unleashed alpha energy as the moustachioed, bumbling head of Ahmedabad's party opened the scoring a week after scoring a 25-ball 80 against Scotland.
Head's match against Jofra Archer was thrilling early on, the left-hander scurrying about, fleeing and looking cramped, but then this was Head's brilliant move: he would deceive his opponent with a slogger's stance, expose his weakness, then he would counter with his axe, lock eyes and lock hands, and suddenly he had won the match and the tournament.
The left-handed Head replied with three boundaries in the fast bowler's second over, smashing Archer's dominant balls aside for four. But the real brutality was against Sam Curran, who has struggled in the last two World Cups, is trying to find rhythm in international matches and is left out of the squad for next week's one-day matches. Head was not about to embrace Curran or offer words of encouragement. Curran's first over produced 30, every ball a boundary and his arms free to smash the ball right in front of the wicket. Head reached his half-century in 19 balls with a monster pull from Saqib Mahmood.
Head finally broke on the final ball of the powerplay, Jordan Cox catching Mahmood at deep square leg, the opener's destructive power taking Australia to 86 for 1 after six overs. The ball rolled well onto the blades of another opener, Matt Short, to give Australia the advantage.
Fortunately for stand-in captain Phil Salt, there was joy to be found in slowing the pace of the game, and spin, first through Adil Rashid, by far England's most experienced player, ended Australia's hopes of a truly fearsome total.
His leg-break at slip pushed Mitch Marsh to two, before Liam Livingstone capitalised on a trend that had caught on among the visitors. Short found Curran at deep backwards square, Marcus Stoinis misplayed a reverse and fell leg-before, and Tim David's routine attempt was connected with the first ball. Jacob Bethell tried some left-arm variety but the older tweeker did the job. Within 13 overs, Australia were trailing at 132 for five.
The fast bowlers, after a miserable opening, put on another light show. A slow ball from Curran took Josh Inglis off the stumps, Archer took his hat-trick and a frothy York ball for his second wicket. Mahmood, playing his first international game in 18 months, smashed a full pass to rock Cameron Green's stumps. Head's brutal beginning was forgotten.
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But Australia's final total of 179 still looked a pretty good score, and it was made even better when Josh Hazlewood, batting as usual with the red ball in a white-ball match, took the early wicket of Will Jacks and then Cox, at number three, inside-edged him towards the boundary off successive deliveries.
Cox's first international innings did not last long, but ended with a superb catch by David. Cox smashed a ball from Xavier Bartlett down the leg side and, although it flew high, the fielder's eyes were glued to it and his leg drove it from mid-on to midwicket, sliding in to end the batsman's stay of 17.
Salt, like Head, put the ball perfectly into Short's hands deep backward square at the end of the powerplay, but England were unable to make any serious impact and at 46 for three their base was relatively minimal.
Just as Rashid promises guile for England, Australia have Adam Zampa, whose usual stump-to-stump fuss limited Bethell's first batting for England to just two sixes off two balls. The match ended at 52 for four and Australia won comfortably. Livingstone told another story briefly, a fine all-round display, but Hazlewood returned to linger.
