Australia celebrate after beating England 3-2 in the ODI series
Image courtesy of: Zimbio
Australia all-rounder Mitchell Marsh took four wickets and opener Aaron Finch smashed an unbeaten 70 to lead the Baggy Greens to a 3-2 series win over England in Manchester.
Heading into the final ODI, the series was tied at 2-2, with Australia having won the first two ODIs before England bounced back by winning the next two.
However, Australia were just too much for England to handle in the decider and subsequently won the match by a convincing margin of eight wickets.
England skipper Eoin Morgan would have been regretting his decision to bat first as not only did the top order collapse, but he was forced to retire hurt after being struck on the side of the helmet by Australia left-arm pace bowler Mitchell Starc in the seventh over.
With Morgan having been ruled out of the ODI a little while later, none of the England batsmen, with the exception of Ben Stokes and Adil Rashid, stood tall and made a vital contribution with the bat.
Stokes was England’s highest-scorer with 42, while Rashid scored a crucial 35 not out. Had it not been for their valiant efforts, England would have never reached 138 before being bowled out.
Stokes was England’s top-scorer with 42
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Marsh inflicted the most damage with his four wickets, while John Hastings snapped up three and Starc and Ashton Agar chipped in with one wicket apiece.
Marsh finished with figures of 4-27 off six overs
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Chasing 139 to win, Australia found themselves in trouble early on as opener Joe Burns was dismissed by David Willey for a duck before skipper Steven Smith was on his way back to the pavilion after being caught behind off the bowling of Mark Wood for 12.
But, Smith’s wicket was to be England’s last taste of success for the rest of the match as Finch and George Bailey amassed an unbeaten 109-run partnership, during which Finch brought up his half-century, to guide Australia to victory with 154 balls to spare.
Finch finished on 70 off 64 balls, which included 11 boundaries and a six, while Bailey remained undefeated on 41 off 45 deliveries, which included seven boundaries.
Finch smashed 11 boundaries and a six during his game-winning innings of 70 not out
Image courtesy of: Zimbio
Willey and Wood claimed one wicket each.
James Taylor, who was named England’s stand-in captain after Morgan was ruled out midway through the game, was less than impressed with the team’s performance, and said: “Yeah, [Morgan] received a serious ball from Starc, he’s a bit groggy, hopefully he pulls up well. Credit to the way Australia bowled well first up, they got those early wickets, we lost wickets in clumps, then Morgy got hit… Think it was a better wicket [than for the third ODI], it nipped around and swung early. They bowled well.
“It’s an honour to captain your country, shame that Morgy couldn’t take the field. There’s some exceptionally talented players in England with bat and ball, we’ve put the world champions under serious pressure, unfortunately we couldn’t quite take it on. [Reece Topley] Exciting talent, he’s got some great skills, shame we didn’t have many more runs for him to defend. It has been a brilliant summer, we’ve played some top-class cricket and it’s been exciting to be part of it. [Pakistan tour next] We’ve got some brilliant players of spin, with the exciting brand of cricket we’re playing, we’ll be taking it on in the UAE.”
Smith was delighted to have ended the tour of England on a high, and said: “Extremely satisfying, but also got a lot of concern for Eoin, hope he’s okay. This team’s been through some tough times, what happened last summer, and you never want to see that sort of thing on a cricket field.
“[Early wickets] We haven’t done that so well in the series, with the new ball, but we were spot on today, with the early start, it was probably a good toss to lose. There’s lots of good young fast bowlers there, the good thing is we were able to win this series without a lot of our experienced players. It’s been a long trip on the road, looking forward to some time at home. Bangladesh will be a tough tour but looking forward to the challenge. It’s been a tough couple of months for us, England were great during the Ashes, and the same in the one-day series, they kept coming back at us.”
Marsh was named Man of the Match and Man of the Series, and said: “My bowling is something I’ve been working on, it’s nice to contribute to the team with the ball. Just got to put the ball in the right area and wait for the mistake… [Genuine allrounder?] Tough question, I just want to keep improving both facets of my game and contributing for Australia. If I can do that, the rest will look after itself. Shame to lose the Ashes but, with a few injuries, to win this series is great.”