Watch England's first ODI against Australia live on Sky Sports Cricket from 12.30pm on Friday
Thursday 10 September 2020 22:34, UK
England have well and truly got Australia's number in white-ball cricket.
They have just swept to a 2-1 victory in the T20 international series, while they thumped them by eight wickets in the semi-finals of the Cricket World Cup a year ago to make it 13 wins in 16 ODIs against their old rivals.
That stellar run was boosted by a 5-0 whitewash on home soil in the summer of 2018 - featuring a world-record ODI total - as England annihilated an Australia side shorn of David Warner and Steve Smith, who were serving bans following the ball-tampering scandal.
Read on to see how England swept their opponents aside - and then watch this year's three-match series, which starts at Emirates Old Trafford on Friday, live on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event from 12.30pm.
Australia 214 all out lost to England 218-7 by three wickets
The batting woes that plagued Australia throughout the series were first evident in south London. The tourists were bundled out by England in 47 overs, only lasting that long due to a sixth-wicket stand of 84 between Glenn Maxwell (62) and Ashton Agar (40). Moeen Ali (3-43) and Adil Rashid (2-36) took their first of 12 strikes apiece for the series.
Two mini-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 - 6ft 7in 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
England's highest-ever ODI score against Australia (that record would be emphatically bettered later in the series) was good enough to earn a 2-0 lead as Jason Roy (120 off 108 balls) struck 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, 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 ton with a fine 131 that helped bring the runs required down to 53 from the final five overs. But Liam Plunkett (4-53) took the key wicket of Marsh and captain Tim Paine (15) within the next four balls before England blasted out the tail.
England 481-6 beat Australia 239 all out by 242 runs
Four-hundred-and-eighty-one! 481! And it should really have been 500! England did not just break the record ODI score of 444 - set by themselves only two years ago against Pakistan at Trent Bridge - they obliterated it.
Alex Hales (147 off 92 balls) top-scored, Jonny Bairstow (139 off 92) tonked 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.
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 victory.
Australia 310-8 lost to England 314-4 by six wickets
Another ODI, another England win, another record achieved. This time England mounted their highest successful run chase against Australia, 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, finishing on 310-8 represented a fairly poor return from the final overs for Australia. So it proved, with Roy, Bairstow (79 off 66) and Buttler (54no off 29) in the runs.
Australia 205 all out lost to England 208-9 by one wicket
Even 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 a 81-run stand, Buttler (110no off 122) moved to arguably his finest hundred, if indeed his slowest, for England in a thrilling 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, Stanlake 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 the first ODI between England and Australia, live on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event from 12.30pm on Friday.
