Champions Trophy

2009 Champions Trophy Semi-Finals: Australia beat England by 9 wickets

Skipper Ricky Ponting (111) and Shane Watson (136) smashed elegant centuries as Australia trampled England by nine wickets to storm into the final of the Champions Trophy at the SuperSport Park on Friday. Their sublime unbeaten knocks produced a stunning record 252-run second-wicket partnership for Australia as the defending champions continued to torment England.

Chasing 258 to win the first semi-final and earn their second shot at the title, Australia crushed the target with 8.1 overs to spare. En route to his 28th ODI hundred, Ponting became the first Australian batsman to touch the 12,000 run-mark when he pulled Graham Onions for a four in the 29th over.
Ponting and Watson, who outscored his skipper with his third ODI hundred, put on an amazing batting display to outwit their rivals yet again.

Earlier, Tim Bresnan smashed a career best 80 to help England recover from a calamitous start and reach a fighting 257 in 47.4 overs after opting to bat. Bresnan, who replaced Stuart Broad in the match, raised a crucial 107-run stand in company of Luke Wright (48) to lift England from a precarious 101/6 in 21st over.

At the start, England innings was in tatters having lost six wickets without reaching the half-way mark but Bresnan and Wright batted with steely resolve to extricate their team from the crisis situation.
Bresnan dug in with Wright to redeem the England innings with some clever batting under pressure.
From a depressing 101/6 in 20.2 overs, England went on to put up at least a fighting total. Siddle (3/55) was the most successful bowler while Lee (2/46) and Shane Watson (2/35) took two wickets apiece.

The defending champions will now meet the winner of Saturday’s second semi-final between Pakistan and New Zealand in Monday’s title clash at the same venue.

Tags: 2009 Champions Trophy, Australia, england