Australia Reclaim Number One Spot In ICC T20I Rankings With 5-Wicket Win Over England In 3rd T20I At Southampton

After putting up a solid performance with the ball to restrict England to a mediocre total of 145 runs in 20 overs, Australia romped home to victory with skipper Aaron Finch leading the run chase with a breezy 39 runs from 26 deliveries.

The third and final game of the 3-match T20 series between England and Australia played out at the Ageas Oval in Southampton was more of a dead rubber with the hosts already sealing the series 2-0 but Australia pulled one back with a consolatory win at Southampton and reclaimed the Number One ICC T20 international rankings from their arch rivals England. After putting up a solid performance with the ball to restrict England to a mediocre total of 145 runs in 20 overs, Australia romped home to victory with skipper Aaron Finch leading the run chase with a breezy 39 runs from 26 deliveries. After Finch's departure, Australia once again had a bit of a middle order collapse with Glen Maxwell and Steve Smith falling in quick succession but Marcus Stoinis continued to keep the chase on track and a late impetus by Mitchell Marsh (39) and Ashton Agar (16) helped the tourists secure a last-over win by 5 wickets.

🥇 Australia are back on 🔝 🎆 pic.twitter.com/KRaAaeiZpX

— ICC (@ICC) September 8, 2020

Earlier in the day, England failed to put up a challenging score on the board with wicket-keeper batsman doing bulk of the run scoring with a half ton from 44 deliveries and guiding England to a below par 145-6 total. David Malan, Moeen Ali and Joe Denly were the other useful contributors with the bat for the hosts. The final match of the T20I series also witnessed all-rounder Moeen Ali make his captaincy debut for England in the shorter format of the game as regular skipper Eoin Morgan rested himself from the inconsequential battle in order to be up and going for the ODIs as well as the forthcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020. The consolation win at Southampton in the final T20I against England meant that Australia leapfrogged their arch rivals to claim the Numero Uno spot in the ICC T20I Rankings for teams. It was Australia who had begun the series as the top-ranked side but had slipped to No. 2 after successive defeats against the Englishmen. With a win in the final T20I, they returned to claim the top spot.