England vs Australia World Cup score: England chase down 224 to win
England swaggered into their first World Cup final in 27 years, blowing away rivals Australia by eight wickets in a magnificent display of attacking cricket that sets up a winner-takes-all date with New Zealand at Lord's.
The three-times runners-up are now firm favourites to land the trophy for the first time on Sunday, having thrashed the Black Caps by 119 runs in the group stage, and head to the home of cricket on the back of a sensational performance at Edgbaston. Chris Woakes, Jofra Archer and Adil Rashid performed wonders with the ball after Australia chose to bat first, reducing the visitors to 14 for three in a frenzied opening burst and ultimately restricting them to a lacklustre 223 all out.
England would have been mindful that they were bowled out for 221 and beaten by the same attack last month, but Jason Roy missed that game with a torn hamstring and his brilliant 85 put the game beyond a shellshocked Australia, who went down with 107 balls remaining.
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of England vs Australiafrom Edgbaston.
The Ashes rivals meet in Birmingham with a place in Sunday's final against New Zealand on the line after the Kiwis pulled off the result of the tournament to knock out favourites India in a thriller on Wednesday.
Eoin Morgan's side were on the brink of elimination when they lost to today's opponents a fortnight ago.
But wins over India and then New Zealand secured their spot in the final four.
Aaron Finch's men looked on course for top spot in the group stages only for defeat to South Africa last time out see them finish second.
We'll have all the latest updates throughout the day.
It's been a long road to the World Cup final for England. The last time they were there was in 1992, 27 years ago.
Standing in their way is the old enemy, Australia, who are seeking some redemption of their own.
A year ago their one-day side was in pieces, Steve Smith and David Warner had been banned for 12-months, they were losing left, right and centre and had no hopes of becoming World Champions.
Aaron Finch took over as captain and has overseen a huge change around, Australia have already beaten England in this tournament and fancy themselves to do so again.
According to England pace-man Mark Wood, the opponent for today's semi-final wasn't as important as the venue England are playing at:
"I've been asked if it's better that we're playing Australia rather than India, but I really didn't mind who we got in the last four.
"Regardless of the opponents, the whole team would have felt the same - up for it, a little bit nervous, desperate to do well.
"What is exciting is to be playing at Edgbaston, which has become a bit of a fortress for us. We managed to beat Australia in the Champions Trophy here a couple of years ago, so hopefully we can have the same result this time around."
They always are, but it's different in World Cup cricket. The Aussies have never lost a World Cup semi-final, the closest they've come to defeat was a tie with South Africa in 1999.
Eoin Morgan says he would have liked to have batted first as well but England will be chasing.
They name an unchanged side from their victory over New Zealand in the group stages with Australia bringing in Peter Handscomb for the injured Usman Khawaja.
Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (c), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (wk), Chris Woakes, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood.
Australia
David Warner, Aaron Finch (c), Steve Smith, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Lyon.
That seems to be the trend of the World Cup so far. England will have to do something special to win this game.
They've lost three matches in the tournament against Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Australia. In all three cases they were forced to chase a total and couldn't get over the line.
1.4 - Aus 5-1, D Warner 4, S Smith 1, J Archer 1-1 (0.4)
Archer greets Smith with a quick bouncer that Smith ducks under. Smith dabs the ball into mid-wicket and scrambles through for a single to get off the mark.
The crowd will have some fun now with both Warner and Smith at the crease.
Having already thrashed nine fours and five sixes, he would surely have gone on to a career-best hundred had he not been robbed in messy circumstances. Given caught behind despite making no contact with the ball, he instantly called for a review only to belatedly realise Jonny Bairstow had already used it up.
Roy lost his cool, remonstrating on the pitch and on his reluctant walk off, and needed soothing words from umpire Marais Erasmus to stop things getting worse.
The sour tone of his dismissal cannot detract from his outstanding efforts, which almost single-handedly banished England's concerns about chasing, nor from the raucous celebrations which followed on the back of a decisive stand of 79 between Joe Root (49no) and Eoin Morgan (45no).
Archer and Woakes also excelled, taking two for 32 and three for 20, while Rashid bagged three scalps in his best display to date.
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