[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Group A

England vs Australia

Edgbaston, Birmingham

ENGLAND squad: Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Jake Ball, Sam Billings (wk), Jos Buttler (wk), Alex Hales, Eoin Morgan (capt), Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

AUSTRALIA squad: Steven Smith (capt), David Warner, Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, John Hastings, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade (wk), Adam Zampa


The last Group A game takes place tomorrow in Birmingham.  For England it's a formality; for Australia, it's the beginning and the possible end of their tournament.

The hosts are already through to the semi-finals, having triumphed impressively over Bangladesh and New Zealand, but the visitors have been labouring under the curse of the rain gods ever since their warm-up games, and have suffered two no results so far.  The good news for them is that the latest forecasts suggest tomorrow's rain will steer clear of the West Midlands until around 6pm, which should be long enough to give us a game and a result.  The bad news is that nothing but a win will do for them, and England are not going to roll over against the old enemy, especially with an Ashes tour on the horizon.

Neither team has any particular reason to change their line-up; England because theirs is working, Australia because theirs hasn't been tried yet.  The pitch will be new, and there should be plenty of runs on offer, especially for Australia's much-fancied batsmen; they'll be up against the likes of Liam Plunkett, who is the world's top ODI wicket-taker over the last twelve months, and Jake Ball, who proved himself a real threat with the new ball against New Zealand.

Australia's record ODI score is 434-4, set against South Africa in Johannesburg in 2006.  Their highest successful chase was 334 in a two-wicket win over England in 2011. Against England overall, their best showing is 342-9 in the 2015 World Cup, while on English soil they've yet to better 315-7 at Old Trafford in September 2013.  Shane Watson holds the triple distinction of being their highest run-scorer in any ODI innings with 185* against Bangladesh in 2011, their highest in an ODI against England with 161* (also in 2011), and their highest on English soil with 143 at Southampton in 2013.

It'd be a great boost to England hopes both for the tournament and for 2017 as a whole to send the Aussies packing.  They've got a pay dispute to sort out; if anything, we'd be doing them a favour.  Make a sacrifice to the sun god on top of the Mailbox, and let's have a full day's cricket at Edgbaston tomorrow.

Play commences at 1030, 10th June 2017