Shane Warne's huge call after 'soul destroying' Aussie T20 defeat

Australia has tumbled to a record worst T20 defeat in their World Cup group game against England in an embarrassing capitulation which has stymied their chances of making the final.

England powered to an eight-wicket win after rolling the Aussies for just 125, making short work of the dismal target with eight wickets and 50 balls to spare.

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Jos Buttler smashed an unbeaten 72 from just 32 balls, an effort that will hamper Australia's net run rate for the rest of the tournament.

In terms of balls remaining, it was Australia's heaviest T20 defeat.

Having gone into the match second in the group, Australia now face must-win matches against both the West Indies and Bangladesh, two teams who soundly defeated the touring Aussies within the last year.

They'll also be relying on England to beat South Africa to give them the best chance of making it past the group stage.

The performance was lambasted by cricketing great Shane Warne, who said the likes of Steve Smith should be dropped from the side.

Only Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc scored at more than a run a ball with late cameos, while the latter was the last to fall on the final ball of the innings.

Captain Aaron Finch top-scored with 44 from 48 balls, while Ashton Agar was the only other Aussie to pass 20 for the innings.

Warne said on Twitter that Australia had all sorts of problems after the loss, starting with tactics and team selection.

“Disappointing selection from Australia leaving Marsh out & Maxwell batting in the power play (he should always come in after power play),” Warne wrote.

“Stoinis should have gone in. Poor strategy & tactics from the Aussies. I love Smith but he shouldn’t be in the T/20 team. Marsh has to be.

“Proper T/20 cricket that from England! Australia will hopefully learn how they need to play after that smashing they copped from the Poms.

“Pakistan & England are showing how to play T/20 cricket. Australia need to change their thinking re style of play plus the team.”

Australia humbled in 'soul-destroying' T20 loss to England

The one-sided affair prompted Sky Sports commentator Charles Dagnall to label the loss as 'soul destroying for Australia', and Finch admitted his side had simply been 'blown away'.

Australia's struggle was best summed up by the fact they managed just 12 boundaries, and their opening six-over powerplay of 3-21 was better only than Papua New Guinea's against Bangladesh this tournament.

"Clearly when you go three-down in the powerplay, it's not an ideal scenario when you when you go in with (one less batsman)," Finch said.

"We were just blown away.

"Any time we felt like we started to get a partnership we just kept losing a wicket.

"It meant we had to try and sit in longer to hopefully get to a total of around 150.

"But as it was, we probably needed a few more."

Finch also brushed aside concerns over Smith's fitness, after the former Test captain appeared to grab at his groin following an attempt at a run-out.

He said Smith's place in the side was likely assured, despite Warne's criticism.

Smith top-scored in Australia's two warm-up games and opening win over South Africa, but scored just one when Warne claimed selectors had erred on Saturday.

"That's just subjective, isn't it?" Finch responded when quizzed on Smith's selection,

"Everyone's got a different opinion on it. And that's okay, we thought we picked the team to to win the game tonight.

"It was not a reflection on how Mitch has been going at all, it was purely just a match-up."

Also questioned was Australia's decision to send Glenn Maxwell out at No.4 in the third over during the powerplay, before he fell lbw for six.

Australia had both Marcus Stoinis and Matt Wade in their team, who have regularly opened in the Big Bash and the latter having regularly filled the role for Australia recently.

With AAP

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