Travis Head provides the fireworks as Australia outclasses new-look England in opening T20

SOUTHAMPTON, England (AP) — A new era for England’s white-ball teams got off to a shaky start with a 28-run loss to Australia on Wednesday in the first of three T20 matches between the fierce cricket rivals.

Australia was put into bat and dismissed for 179 with three balls remaining — an under-par score at the Utilita Bowl in Southampton given the team smashed 86 off the powerplay and was 118-2 after 10 overs. Travis Head hit a 19-ball fifty in his knock of 59, which included eight fours and four sixes, to get the Australians off to a rapid start.

England, with a batting lineup missing injured captain Jos Buttler and including uncapped Jordan Cox and Jacob Bethell, stumbled to 52-4. After Liam Livingstone (37) and Sam Curran (18) threatened a fightback with a 54-run partnership for the fifth wicket, England lost three wickets in 10 balls to plunge to 113-7 and was eventually all out for 151 with four balls left.

The other matches in the T20 series are in Cardiff on Friday and Manchester on Sunday. Then comes a five-match ODI series between the teams, where Buttler — England’s white-ball talisman — may return from his right calf injury that will cause him to miss the T20s.

With the 30-year-old Jamie Overton also selected for the first time, England’s lineup included three uncapped players as well as a stand-in captain in Phil Salt. The English are looking to the future after underwhelming defenses of their 50-over and T20 World Cup titles over the past year, so have overhauled the team and gotten rid of senior players such as Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali and Dawid Malan — the latter two having since retired from international cricket.

Australia’s more-established team had too much for the hosts, with the 86-run opening partnership between Matthew Short (41 off 26 balls) and Head building an excellent platform.

Head crashed 30 runs off the first over bowled by Curran, who quickly disappeared from England attack.

“I’d love to go out and whack it every time,” said Head, who was Australia’s star in its victory in last year’s 50-over World Cup final. “I know that’s not going to be the case every time, but I’m in a nice bit of form at the moment and I want to continue that. I’m taking my chances.”

It took the arrival of spinners Adil Rashid and Livingstone to slow the run-rate, and Australia started to quickly lose wickets — with the last eight departing for 61.

In the chase, the 23-year-old Cox was out for an unconvincing 17 off 12 balls and the 20-year-old Bethell managed only 2. Overton was also in the top seven of an inexperienced and fragile batting lineup, and made 15.

Australia’s fielding was brilliant, with Tim David’s catch — on the dive after turning round and running into the leg side — to remove Cox particularly standing out.

“Heady came out swinging in the powerplay and gave them a head start but we dragged it back quite nicely in the middle,” Salt said.

“He can do that,” he added about Head. “He’s done that all over the place for a couple of years now ... every ball is an event in its own right.”

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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket