World Cup 2019 | Jason Behrendorff and Mitchell Starc seal semi-final berth for Australia. Mitchell Starc becomes leading wicket-taker

Defending champions Australia have become the first team to enter the semi-finals of the World Cup after they defeated England by 64 runs on Tuesday at Lord's Cricket Ground. The feat was made possible by the Aussie pace attack. Jason Behrendorff took a fifer and lead the attack with figures of 5-44. Starc's clinical four-wicket haul played the supporting role and the Marcus Stoinis' took care of the rest. 15 out of the 17 wickets were taken by pacers yesterday. Australia skipper Aaron Finch's century made him the first batsman to have his name on the limited overs Lord's Honours Board as it was introduced earlier this year. 

Starc on Tuesday displaced England fast bowler Jofra Archer to become the leading wicket-taker in the ongoing ICC Men's Cricket World Cup.

Starc entered the Lord's Cricket Ground with 15 wickets under his belt. The 29-year-old scalped four England wickets - Joe Root, Eoin Morgan, Ben Stokes, and Adil Rashid - to take his tally to 19 wickets in the tournament so far. The delivery that dismissed Ben Stokes was nothing but a perfect inswinging yorker that beat through Stokes' defences. 

Watch the delivery here:

Starc returned with the figures of 4-43 against England. The Australia fast bowler was the joint highest wicket-taker in the 2015 edition with New Zealand's Trent Boult. Both settled with 22 wickets.

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England's Jofra Archer (16), Pakistan's Mohammad Amir (15), New Zealand's Lockie Ferguson (14) and England's Mark Wood (13) complete the top five wicket-takers' list.

The hosts of the tournament need to win their remaining two matches against India and New Zealand, respectively, to enter the knock-out stage. If England manage to win one match from their two fixtures, the fortunes of the team will depend on other results in the tournament.

Australia sit in the top position on the World Cup standings with 12 points from seven matches. Australia will next take on New Zealand on June 29 at the Lord's.

(With inputs from ANI)

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