Woakes fires England to last-ball T20 victory

ADELAIDE, Australia,  (Reuters) – Chris Woakes struck  the winning runs off the last ball to lift England to a dramatic  one-wicket victory over Australia in a Twenty20 international today.
With the scores level at 157 runs each, Woakes smacked the  ball over mid-wicket to extend the world champions’ winning run  in the shortest form for the game to a record eight matches.
“Eight wins in this form of the game is very special,”  England captain Paul Collingwood told reporters.
“It was a great game of cricket, it had everything. I  thought we probably should have seen it through a little bit  easier, but Twenty20 cricket can get a little bit like that  towards the end.”
Australia’s Shane Watson took four for 15, including two  wickets in two balls, and made 59 of 31 balls with the bat,  including three successive sixes and 26 in total off Graeme  Swann’s first over.
It was all in a losing cause for the test opener, however,  as England’s tail overhauled a modest target in front of 32,000  fans at the Adelaide Oval desperate for a measure of revenge  after Australia’s Ashes drubbing.
“It was very disappointing not to get over the line,” said  Watson. “It doesn’t matter how I played as an individual, the  important thing was the win for the team and unfortunately we  got close, it wasn’t good enough.”
The evening might have been different had Australia’s  Stephen O’Keefe not dropped Ian Bell off the first ball of  England’s innings, the in-form batsman going on to make 27 as  the tourists made a brisk start.
Eoin Morgan top-scored for England with 43 off 33 balls and  they looked to be swaggering to victory until Watson had him  caught by David Hussey.
Michael Yardy was bowled for a duck first ball to leave  England 28 runs from victory with three wickets in hand and  Watson on a hat-trick.
Woakes denied him but Australia were celebrating again when  Brett Lee caught Tim Bresnan for 11, again off Watson, and the  prospect of bowling England out looked increasingly likely.
Watson bowled Swann for his fourth wicket off the first ball  of the last over with England still needing four runs from five  deliveries.
The second and final match of the series takes place at the  Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday.