World Cup Live Report - Australia v England, Ahmedabad

From us as well as England's defence of their World Cup.

Join us tomorrow for a blockbuster clash - and perhaps a dress rehearsal for the final - as India take on South Africa in Kolkata!

What jeopardy? Wickets in successive balls - Woakes clubbing straight to square leg, then Rashid top-edging a pull off Hazlewood - closes out what looked like being a tight finish.

England left themselves too much to do. Part of that was their own doing, no doubt, but Australia's brilliance with the ball and in the field - all 10 wickets fell to catches - highlights the gulf in class between these two sides at this World Cup.

After weeks of treading water, the defending champions are finally out of the reckoning, even after Pakistan's unlikely DLS success against New Zealand earlier today. Australia's fifth win moves them into third, two points above New Zealand, and another step towards confirming their spot in the semi-finals.

Chris Woakes' six off the penultimate delivery of Pat Cummins' final over takes 10 from the 47th over.

Now the Australian skipper has some decisions to make. Marcus Stoinis - 0 for 24 from 3 overs - comes into the attack as Josh Hazlewood only has one left.

England simply must go after the allrounder, regardless of the variations the seamer will send down. These next six deliveries are the game...

You just can't keep him out of the game. The leg spinner charges in from deep fine leg to take a sprawling catch after Willey hacks high into the night's sky.

Struck 29 off 19, took 3 for 21 and now catching worldies...

A remarkable spell from the best spinner in the competition. There have been 36 dot balls in there - six overs worth! - and, of course, the wickets of Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes and now Moeen Ali, who slog swept him out to Warner at wide mid on. He has turned the game Australia's way. Again.

So much for knuckling down. Livingstone slaps a short ball to midwicket, Sean Abbott takes an excellent catch and England have lost 2 for 5 in 10 balls.

Birmingham or bust for England as Chris Woakes joins Moeen at the crease. Can Australia keep the squeeze on? The required rate is creeping towards double figures...

Huge, huge wicket - and of course it's gone to Adam Zampa, who moves to the top of the bowling charts at this World Cup with 18 dismissals – level with Sri Lanka's Dilshan Madushanka.

It was not the best ball by any stretch; over the wicket, looping down Stokes' leg stump before the left-hander opts to help it on its way. Alas, the contact is too pure and finds the fielder on the 45 up in the circle.

Liam Livingstone is the new man, needing to knuckle down with Moeen Ali, who is going along nicely - 33 off 36, with England needing 115 from the final 85 balls.

The allrounder, who returned home, will meet back up with the Australia squad in Mumbai on Sunday evening. Marsh's grandfather, Ross, passed away on Friday. Australia wore black armbands during their fielding innings against England.

Marsh left the squad at short notice last week to return to Perth, but departed with a message to Marcus Stoinis that he would "be back to win the World Cup." His absence came 24 hours after Glenn Maxwell had suffered a concussion falling off a golf cart and meant Marcus Stoinis and Cameron Green both faced England.

Australia's next game against Afghanistan is facing as crucial in the semi-final permutations so they will be keen to bring Marsh straight back, but though the information is that he will be available for selection they may have to consider the effects of two lengthy flights in a short period.

It is also hoped that Maxwell will be available again after his concussion, so for the first time in the tournament, Australia could have all their players up for selection which will provide some tough decisions - notably around Marnus Labuschagne, who top-scored against England.

Skips down the track, miscues and gifts Cameron Green a simple catch at long off. Jos Buttler walks off for 1 off 7. That's now just 106 runs at 15.14 for the England captain.

The execution was all off, even if the intention was good. Ben Stokes had just faced a maiden and there was a clear need to lay something on Australia after the loss of Malan.

Not only does Zampa have his 17th wicket of the competition, but it is the fifth time the leg spinner has picked up Buttler in ODIs. In 9 innings against one another, Buttler has managed just 43 runs at an average of 8.60. Desperate times.

This was originally a celebratory post for Malan (and England, as they move past 100). But instead, the spoils of this entry go to Australia and Pat Cummins. The skipper brings himself on to try and break a steady partnership, and does just that.

Malan tries to heave the right-armer over to the leg side but instead skews high to long leg where Travis Head steadies himself to take a fine catch. Together, Malan and Stokes managed 84 from 104 deliveries. Over to England's leader Jos Buttler...

This innings has been another real grind for Ben Stokes, whose strike rate for this World Cup is a tick below 50, 37 balls into his fourth innings of the tournament. He looked in prime touch six weeks ago when making 182 – England’s record ODI score – against New Zealand at The Oval but hasn’t been quite right since the hip niggle that ruled him out of the early stages of this competition.

The difference today, compared to his innings against Sri Lanka and India in particular, is that he has largely been in control – his control percentage is up above 90% – despite that low strike rate. He hasn’t looked fluent by any means, but appears to have calculated that England’s best chance of pulling this chase off involves him putting together a substantial partnership with Dawid Malan.

Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins had been hammering away at good lengths, seemingly on autopilot. With Ben Stokes playing his usual slow burn after the early fall of wickets, Malan took matters into his own hands, dropping to one knee and fetching Hazlewood from outside off to smash him over deep square leg for England's first six.

The strike off the final delivery of the Power Play broke a run of 17 deliveries without a boundary.

A lot has been made of Joe Root's form this World Cup. England's banker, their modern-day great - arguably the best batter they've produced - started in sparkling form with 77 and 82 against New Zealand and Bangladesh.

But a run of 11, 2, 3 and 0 left him scratchy coming into this match, even uncharacteristically using his media commitments to fire a few shots Australia's way.

Root was on 2 when he chipped to cover, only for Marcus Stoinis to spill a low, regulation catch. He has also survived a strong LBW review and picked up his first boundary with an edge beyond the grasp of a diving Steve Smith at second slip.

But on 13, a brilliant review from Pat Cummins has him on the way back for 13 off 17 deliveries, a nick behind confirmed on Ultra Edge to give Starc his second. It is another failure from Root, who now averages 26.85 in the tournament.

England are 19 for 2 chasing 287.

Incredible scenes in Ahmedabad and the perfect start for Mitchell Starc.

An innocuous delivery swings down the leg side, and gets a helpful touch off the face of Bairstow bat through to Josh Inglis. Oh England...

Pace off does the trick for Chris Woakes, who finishes with 4 for 54. The figures tell the story - he has been the pick of the bowlers today. It is yet another strong performance from the collective, in particular Adil Rashid (2 for 38) who kept things quiet during the middle. "It was nice to get into a rhythm early on," the leg spinner tells Nasser Hussain at the break. "Generally, it's quite a good pitch - 287 (target), we're generally pleased wth that."

At various points - 178 for 4 in the 33rd, 223 for 5 in the 41st - Australia looked set for a 300-plus score, but wickets at key junctures, to set batters, has left them short here. England don't need to do anything drastic to chase this down, but Pat Cummins and the rest of his bowlers know there are fresh scars that won't take too much effort to reopen.

So says Ricky Ponting, as the leg spinner, with a career batting average of 8.82 from 46 ODI innings, gets a few boundaries away, taking Australia beyond 275. His opening boundary was lucky - preserving his face and inadvertently guiding a Mark Wood bouncer over Buttler for four. But he smacked the follow-up down the ground and pulled Chris Woakes through deep square leg and fine leg for a third boundary.

He and Mitchell Starc will look to take things through to the end of the 50 overs. Though latter is by far the better striker, Zampa has held his own impressively so far.

The clash of the big lads falls England's way as Livingstone snares Stoinis in an eventful three deliveries.

The spinning allrounder was chosen ahead of Moeen Ali to bowl the one over needed to stitch together the death with Adil Rashid already through his 10. His second delivery was full and slog-swept over midwicket, followed by a shorter one baseball-ed down the ground. The third was in between, and a little quicker. Stoinis tried to access midwicket again, this time more or less off the back foot, but saw his strike plucked out of the air by a leaping Jonny Bairstow in the deep.

Livingstone's celebrations tell the story - fired up, pumping the air, throwing a glare Stoinis way. Mark Wood has now bagged Pat Cummins to leave Australia 247 for 8 in the 45th over.

Coming in after just two matches at this World Cup, scoring eight in each against India and the Netherlands, Cameron Green is playing a fine hand here.

After a watchful start, and either side of a short ball barrage from Mark Wood, he has played engagingly to give Australia a platform to swing for the hills in the final 10 overs of their innings. That is likely to be led by Marcus Stoinis, his partner for this sixth-wicket stand. Both allrounders are only here because of the absences of Glenn Maxwell (concussion) and Mitchell Marsh (family reasons), but they are holding their own to give Australia a shot at a 300-plus score.

They have also survived a couple of run outs, both of which would have seen Green sent on his way. On 44, Stoinis called him through for a dodgy single only for Malan to miss his shy of the stumps. Five balls later, Green (45) was sent back to the nonstriker's end late. Luckily, he's a tall boy, and a full-length dive just beat Willey's breaking of the stumps after Adil Rashid's gather and throw from midwicket

A second ODI fifty is there for the taking, with Australia 220 for 5 after 40 overs.

Mark Wood gets the key wicket for England! And it means more to him - just his 5th dismissal in the tournament - coming with the 9th delivery of a torturous sixth over. Umpire Marais Erasmus raised his finger on the field, only for Marnus to review immediately. It looked high, but DRS comes back showing the predicted path would have hit leg stump flush, much to the dismay of the batter and the surprise of the bowler.

Mark Wood's speeds are up, but the extra pace of what has been a two-paced surface has allowed Cameron Green to make hay at the back end of the 31st over. Both boundaries were flayed through backward point, but the penultimate delivery was encouraging for the Durham quick.

Green's attempted pull looped in the air towards point, while the bat flew out of his hands towards midwicket. Four fielders converged for the catch, the closest being Wood as he continued his follow-through. Ball (and bat) land safely.

Adil Rashid, held back until the 20th over, strikes with his 10th delivery. And it's a bit of a gift.

Steve Smith had been going steady with fellow twitcher Marnus Labuschagne. The stand had reached 75 when Smith went to cut a delivery from the leg spinner, weight towards the off side, and scuffing low to Moeen Ali at third up in the circle.

The two batters had clearly made a pact to go after the spinners, particularly Moeen Ali whose first two overs had gone for 20. This, however, was a risk too far.

It will doubtless be a frustration to many England fans that even with their (realistic) semi-final hopes long gone, their best young batter has found himself running the drinks for three games in a row. Harry Brook has not played since October 21, yet is still England’s fourth-highest run-scorer at this World Cup.

The only reason for his continued omission is for the balance of England’s side. They admitted that they had got things wrong when picking six specialist batters in Mumbai, which left them desperately short of options when Reece Topley went off injured in his fourth over, and have persisted with two spin-bowling allrounders in Liam Livingstone and Moeen Ali.

Livingstone - introduced into the attack ahead of Adil Rashid today - has been a handy option with the ball in this tournament: he has not taken many wickets, but his economy rate of 4.95 makes him England’s most economical bowler. The problem is, neither Livingstone nor Moeen has averaged as much as 15 with the bat – and England keep getting bowled out.

Having struck Australia's first 11 runs, Chris Woakes got one to bounce a touch more than expected as it decked across the left-hander to take an edge through to Joe Root at a wide first slip. It was a pretty unconvincing innings, throwing hands without any real timing leading to a couple of shots over the top that plugged before making it to the boundary sponge.

David Willey has just come close to making it 27 for 2 with an LBW shout that was turned down on the field meaning the umpire's call went David Warner's way. Meanwhile, Steve Smith at the other end tickles fine for his first boundary, having now passed a thousand World Cup runs in his 27th innings.

How about this for a stat - of the 34 teams to lose the toss at this World Cup coming into this weekend, 25 have gone on to win the match.

Every chance that becomes 27 out of 36 by the end of today...

You can follow the live ball-by-ball commentary for this game in Hindi and in Tamil also.

Those in the US can watch the game LIVE on ESPN+.

Not for the first time, Buttler has chosen to expose his players to the heat. It's a bold strategy Cotton, let's see if it pays off for them.

The bowlers produced their best collective performance against India, restricting them to 229 for 9. Granted, that joy was short-lived when the batters went out there and ended up 101 short of their target, but it was much more of what you'd expect from the group.

Australia, however, will come at England hard. And despite their tough start, they have assumed an impressive level of clarity in both disciplines, thanks to the performances of David Warner at the top of the order along with leg spinner Adam Zampa. They are the team's leading run-scorer and wicket-taker respectively...

Jos Buttler tosses the coin, Pat Cummins calls incorrectly and the England captain decides to chase with an unchanged XI!

Australia, who would have batted anyway, confirms two changes: allrounders Marcus Stoinis and Cameron Green come in to replace Glenn Maxwell (concussion) and Mitchell Marsh, who returned home for family reasons.