Brilliant bowling from the Australian bowling attack has led to a 36-run victory over Ashes foes England at the T20 World Cup.

The loss leaves England’s campaign on life-support, having had its first match against Scotland washed out.

Batting first, Travis Head and David Warner got the Aussies off to a flyer, racing to 70 in the fifth over before Warner (39 off 16) was undone by a Moeen Ali slider.

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When Head (34 off 18) was bowled by Jofra Archer in the next over, the Aussie innings was in the balance.

Mitch Marsh (35 off 25) and Glenn Maxwell (28 off 25) put on 65 in the next seven overs, before they, too, both fell in quick succession.

Australias top-five all got starts, but neither were able to go big. But they still managed to set its Ashes rivals 202 to win.

In reply, the English got off to a strong start themselves, racing to 73 in the first seven overs before Zampa claimed a breakthrough with his first ball of the innings, bowling Phil Salt for 37 off 23 balls.

Jos Buttler looked on to take the match away from the Aussies. He belted Adam Zampa for six straight down the ground, but was out the very next ball when he played a reverse sweep straight to Pat Cummins at backward point.

When Hazlewood had Jonny Bairstow caught by Glenn Maxwell in the 14th over, Maxwell turned to the group of English fans who’d been ribbing him from the stands and gave them John Cena’s classic ‘you can’t see me’ wave.

That was as good as it got for the English, losing wickets at regular intervals as the Aussie bowlers tightened the screws.

Having been belted in his first over, Glenn Maxwell (0-22 from two) conceded just two runs in the 12th over, Zampa (2-28 from four) three in the 13th, Hazlewood (1-28 from four) only two in the 15th, and Pat Cummins (2-23 from four) four each in the 16th and 19th.

Zampa, who was awarded player of the match, said he was able to use information gained during Australia’s batting innings to develop a plan of his own.

He said the wickets were also difficult to read and required quick thinking.

“It’s one of those places where you don’t really know the conditions until you start bowling,” he said after the match.

“I realised if I started bowling into the wicket with some speed, it would stay low – hard to play cross-bat shots. That was my plan.

“Some of the wickets in the West Indies you really need to sum up on the spot – you can’t look at them and know what’s going to happen.”

Australia sits on top of group B, and can all but lock themselves into the Super 8 stage with a win over Namibia on Wednesday morning (AEST).

Earlier, David Miller bailed South Africa out of deep trouble against their bogey team the Netherlands in a four-wicket win in New York.

Miller’s unbeaten 59 off 51 balls, with four sixes and three boundaries, rescued South Africa from 4-12 in the fifth over.

This was after the Netherlands was restricted to 9-103.

Miller and Tristan Stubbs saved the day, making chasing down the target with seven balls remaining.

The Netherlands was going for a hat trick of wins against South Africa in World Cups, after winning their T20 in 2022 and one-day international in 2023.

Chasing a paltry 104 for victory, South Africa’s big T20 hitters failed.

Quinton de Kock was run out for a duck, and fellow opener Reeza Hendricks was bowled for 3. Aiden Markram was caught behind playing down the leg side for a three-ball duck and Heinrich Klaasen holed out for 4.

Dutch medium-pacer Vivian Kingma finished his four overs with 2-12.

Miller and Stubbs put on a cautious 65 off 72 balls on a challenging pitch.

Stubbs was caught in the 17th over and Marco Jansen was dismissed for a golden duck in the next over, and the situation tensed up again.

But Miller held his nerve and the Proteas earned their second win in two games in Group D.

Proteas paceman Ottneil Baartman grabbed 4-11 in four overs as the Netherlands was cut down to 48-6 in 11.5 overs.

Sybrand Engelbrecht scored 40 off 45 balls to anchor the Dutch, and Logan Van Beek scored 23 to push the total past 100.