Thursday 20 December 2018 09:55, UK
With five days to go until Christmas, we look back on how England handed out a 5-0 drubbing of Australia in this summer's ODI series.
Eoin Morgan's men responded to defeat by Scotland in the best possible way, posting their highest ODI score against Australia before blasting a new world-record total. Jos Buttler capped things off in style with a stunning century.
Here's how the series unfolded...
First ODI, The Oval
Australia 214 all out lost to England 218-7 by three wickets
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The batting woes that would plague Australia throughout - particularly their struggles against spin, with leading wicket-takers Moeen Ali (3-43) and Adil Rashid (2-36) taking their first of 12 strikes for the series - were first evident at The Oval. The tourists were bundled out by England for 214 in 47 overs, only lasting that long due to a handy sixth-wicket stand of 84 between Glenn Maxwell (62) and Ashton Agar (40).
Two mini-batting collapses either side of a 115-run fourth-wicket partnership between Joe Root (50) and Eoin Morgan (69) threatened to derail England's run-chase - 6 ft 7 fast bowler Billy Stanlake (2-44) showing the first flashes of his undoubted talent - but David Willey cracked a crucial unbeaten 35 to see the hosts to a narrow three-wicket win.
England 342-8 beat Australia 304 all out by 38 runs
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England's highest-ever ODI score against Australia (that record would emphatically be bettered later in the series) of 342-8 was good enough to earn them a 2-0 advantage as Jason Roy (120 off 108 balls) cracked a composed hundred at the top of the order, and Jos Buttler belted 91 not out off 70 balls later on.
A late Australian surge, this time with the bat, again had the result in doubt, with Shaun Marsh - Australia's leading run-scorer for the series with 288 at an average of 57.60 - outdoing Roy's earlier century with a fine 131 that helped bring the runs required down to a manageable 53 from the final five overs. But Liam Plunkett (4-53) took the key wicket of Marsh, and captain Paine (15), within the next four balls and England then quickly blasted out the tail.
England 481-6 beat Australia 239 all out by 242 runs
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Four hundred and eighty-one! 481! And it should really have been 500! England didn't just break the record ODI score of 444 - set by themselves only two years ago against Pakistan at Trent Bridge - they utterly obliterated it. Alex Hales (147 off 92 balls) top-scored, Jonny Bairstow (139 off 92) cracked his fourth ton in six ODIs, while captain Morgan (67 off 30) overtook Ian Bell as England's highest ODI run-scorer in recording the nation's fastest fifty, off just 21 deliveries.
Australia had no answer to England's brutal batting, which included a staggering 41 boundaries and 21 sixes - the second-highest ever in an ODI innings. Andrew Tye received the most stick, his nine wicketless overs bringing up a very unwanted century, while the Aussie batsmen could only muster 239 in reply, bowled out in the 37th over as they suffered their heaviest ODI defeat and England clinched their biggest ever victory.
Australia 310-8 lost to England 314-4 by six wickets
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Another ODI, another England win, another record achieved. This time England mounted their highest successful run-chase against Australia, and second-highest ever in chasing down 311, winning with a massive 32 balls to spare as Roy (101 off 83) again finished on the winning side after trading hundreds with Marsh (101 off 92).
Marsh was one of two centurions for Australia, who finally found some form with the bat courtesy of moving Aaron Finch (100 off 106) back up to open. But, having been 225-1 at the start of the 40th over courtesy of those two tons, finishing 310-8 represented a fairly poor return from the final overs. And so it proved, with Roy, Bairstow (79 off 66) and Buttler (54no off 29) again among the runs.
Australia 205 all out lost to England 208-9 by one wicket
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Even still needing 92 runs, with only two wickets remaining, there was an air of inevitability surrounding England's eventual win in Manchester, given both the way the series had gone and the sensational form of Buttler. At that stage, the Lancashire batsman was 47 not out but, ably assisted by Rashid (20 off 47) in an 81-run stand, Buttler (110no off 122) was able to blast his way to arguably his finest hundred, if indeed his slowest, for England in a thrilling one-wicket win.
Again, as at The Oval, it was a smaller target that gave the home side the most trouble after they bowled out Australia for 205 in a frenetic 34.4-over innings - Buttler beginning his brilliant all-round day with a sharp stumping of Marsh and a superb run-out of Paine. In reply, also as at The Oval, Stanlake (3-35) was the one giving the England batsmen headaches with three wickets in a stirring opening spell, reducing the hosts to 27-4. In came Buttler......
Watch live action on Sky Sports Cricket this Christmas as New Zealand and Sri Lanka continue to go head to head, before South Africa take on Pakistan.
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