Willey carves through PM’s XI
An explosive 79 off 36 balls from David Willey helped England ease past the Prime Minister’s XI in a Twenty20 warm-up match at the Manuka Oval in Canberra.
Willey’s knock included six sixes and six fours and he took Nathan Lyon for 34 runs in one over which may have struck a blow for the off-spinner’s white ball ambitions.
England restricted the Prime Minister’s XI to 136 for 8 in their twenty overs with Liam Dawson the pick of the bowlers with his 3 for 16 from four.
Willey was handy with the ball as well picking up 3 for 32 which included the wicket’s of both openers, Peter Nevill and Nic Maddinson.
Peter Handscomb was the only batsman to make a contribution of more than 25 with his knock of 43 which was ended by Dawson.
Seb Gotch added a run-a-ball 22 but when England came out to bat it was clear that a 100 strike rate wasn’t going to cut it.
It took England just 12.4 overs to fly past the Prime Ministers XI total with little required of James Vince (26), Dawid Malan (21*) and Eoin Morgan (8*) with Willey’s innings sticking out above the rest.
England are involved in a trans-Tasman triangular series in Australia and New Zealand in the coming days with the Antipodean rivals set to meet on Saturday to kick things off.
As warm-up’s go this was not the toughest test England could have faced but they would be happy with what was a pretty clinical display.
The Black Caps come into the series on the back of losing their number one ranking in T20Is after a 2-1 home series loss to Pakistan.
Australia have a team chock full of BBL performers with a couple of regulars for company but strangely for them start the tri-series as distinct underdogs against one of the most consistent T20I outfits in the world in New Zealand and the power of England’s white ball guns.
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