Lyon lumps pressure on England for cut-throat semi

Nathan Lyon believes Australia’s injury-beset one-day team is on the verge of "something special" and fired an early barb England's way in declaring the World Cup as theirs to lose ahead of their semi-final.

Never shy of a pointed message for Australia’s Ashes rivals, Lyon set the tone for a highly anticipated knockout clash at Edgbaston on Thursday after his side suffered a 10-run defeat to South Africa in their final group stage game on Sunday.

Australia will be forced into making at least one change to their XI for the match against England, with Usman Khawaja to be replaced in the squad by Matthew Wade and Marcus Stoinis in doubt with a side strain.

England, the ICC's No.1 ranked ODI side and the pre-World Cup favourites, have had a stuttering campaign on their home turf but got their act together with wins over fellow semi-finalists India and New Zealand to close out their group stage campaign and secure a top-four berth.

"I think they are full of world-class players, they've been the No.1 team now for a couple of years. They should be going into this World Cup as favourites," said Lyon.

"It's all on them. It's their World Cup to lose, if you ask me. We have nothing to lose, we only have stuff to gain.

"That is the exciting thing about it – we are going to go out there, we are going to compete. We are going to have fun, we are going to do with a smile on our face, we are going to try and improve on today's performance (against South Africa)."

Lyon was the last player in Australia's 15-man squad to be called upon but has been praised for slotting in seamlessly following his World Cup debut in their victory over England at Lord's last week.

The 31-year-old, his country's greatest-ever Test off-spinner who's been in and out of Australia's limited-overs sides in recent years, went wicketless in his first two games but has been the side's most economical bowler in the tournament (minimum five overs) with an economy rate of 4.55.

He was the pick of Australia’s bowlers against the Proteas, relishing the chance to bowl with a newish ball to finish with 2-53 from 10 overs. Brought on to bowl the sixth over, he slowed South Africa with the wickets of openers Quinton de Kock and Aiden Markram after the pair made a rollicking start.

Having come into the tournament fifth on the ICC rankings with a slew of poor results in one-day cricket in the preceding years, Australia are now eyeing their sixth 50-over title.

"I feel like there is a very special thing just around the corner for us Australian cricketers and the whole Australian public to be honest," said Lyon.

"I think our momentum, even though it got halted a little bit, we will train our backsides off, we will prepare well, we will be elite professionalism and make sure come Thursday we are firing."

Australia have lost their past two bilateral ODI series to England, home and away, and won just one game out of 10 in those campaigns, but the different pressures of a World Cup mean those results mean little come Thursday.

Early weather forecasts for Birmingham suggest rain could impact the match, but the ICC have scheduled a reserve day on Friday in case of a washout.

Australia didn't play a group game at Edgbaston, while England defeated India there last week, with Lyon insisting his opponents are the warm favourites.

"Their side is full of absolute superstars and we are definitely going in as underdogs," he said.

"They are the No.1 team in the world ... we are third, so we are still underdogs. I think we can take a lot out of this tournament so far.

"We are playing against the No.1 team and they are the favourites for winning the World Cup, so it's going to be a massive challenge. Playing against England in England in a semi-final, it doesn't get much better.

"We obviously didn't play our best cricket (against South Africa) but we are going to take lot of learnings from it."

2019 World Cup

Australia's squad: Aaron Finch (c), Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey (wk), Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa

June 1: Australia beat Afghanistan by seven wickets

June 6: Australia beat West Indies by 15 runs

June 9: Australia lost to India by 36 runs

June 12: Australia beat Pakistan by 41 runs

June 15: Australia beat Sri Lanka by 87 runs

June 20: Australia beat Bangladesh by 48 runs

June 25: Australia beat England by 64 runs

June 29: Australia beat New Zealand by 86 runs

July 6: Australia lost to South Africa by 10 runs

July 9: Semi-Final 1, India v New Zealand, Old Trafford

July 11: Semi-Final 2, Australia v England, Edgbaston

July 14: Final, Lord's

Sync Australia's World Cup schedule to your calendar HERE

For a full list of all World Cup fixtures, click HERE