LONDON, July 12 (Xinhua) -- England dominated archrivals Australia to storm into the Cricket World Cup final at Edgbaston in Birmingham on Thursday. The superb eight-wicket victory for the English will see them into their first final for 27 years.
A dominate bowling and fielding performance saw Australia all out for just 223 inside 49 overs. Fiery, intelligent bowling from young paceman Jofra Archer and wily seam bowling from Chris Woakes cheaply removed the Australian openers, while incisive leg spin from Adil Rashid helped England continue to pick up wickets during the middle overs.
By the time the Australian tail was in, Australian hopes were all resting on number three, Steve Smith. However, the ex-captain - recently returned to the side after a ball-tampering scandal - was run out by English keeper Jos Buttler for 85 runs. After the fall of Smith at 217-8, Australia could only manage six more runs before the fall of Behrendorff at the last.
For the second innings, the English openers of Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow got off to an uncharacteristically steady start, absorbing the new ball and getting to grips with the raw pace of Mitchell Starc. The slow, deliberate start of the English openers paid off as after the first five overs, Roy got into his grove and accelerated the run rate.
Any hopes the Australians had for early wickets soon evaporated as Roy and Bairstow pushed the run rate even higher and finished with a partnership of 124 before Bairstow fell for 34. Two overs later, Roy fell for a supreme 85 off 65, however, the damage to the Australian cause was done. The arrival of Test captain Joe Root and One day Captain Eoin Morgan saw the experienced heads of the two add to England's total steadily until they reached the target in just the 33rd over.
England will now face New Zealand in the final who beat India in the earlier semifinal. New Zealand, who were finalists four years ago will hope to go one better at Lords on Sunday.
