Just as England appeared to be struggling against a full-strength Australian attack, Buttler found a willing ally in Chris Woakes late in the innings, the seamer making 53 from 36 balls in a match-winning partnership of 113 in 11.5 overs.
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England have previous at this ground.
Moeen fell a little while later for the same score, looking to pull a shorter ball from Andrew Tye, who claimed his first ODI wicket when Travis Head held the catch. Ali hit the first and second boundary of the innings in the 15th over, but Morgan was taking more blows than he was dishing out.
‘A series win is going to be fantastic, 5-0 would be an unbelievable feeling’.
Incumbent No.3 Cameron White suffered another failure to continue an unsuccessful comeback for the veteran batsman, who hadn’t played an ODI since 2015 before this series.
Finch’s absence will mean Travis Head comes back into the XI for the penultimate match of the Gillette Series on Australia Day with Maxwell added to the squad as cover.
Captain Steve Smith and chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns had said at the time he needed to be more consistent at the worldwide level to get back into the team.
Head said he was delighted to once again perform on Australia’s national day.
“Hopefully that opportunity comes, I’m not quite sure yet”, Head said.
“I thought they bowled really, really well and the ball moved around”. England made it hard for us.
Hazlewood picked up three top order wickets.
This is not how the traditional Australia Day one-dayer at the Adelaide Oval is supposed to shape up.
Australian captain Steve Smith admitted it wasn’t the most convincing of wins. “You have to find ways to win, get a roll on effect”, he said. “As a one-day group with a few fresh faces we felt we had a point to prove to go out there and show these lads we’ve got some fighting spirit”.
Quite clearly, Australia’s strength rests with their fearsome fast bowling arsenal.
England were left staggering after Cummins and Hazlewood created havoc with the new ball, losing five wickets in the opening seven overs, but Australia were unable to fully press their advantage and a Chris Woakes-led revival helped England to a first innings tally of 196 – a total that had seemed virtually impossible when they had lost their first five wickets for eight runs. It wasn’t to be though for the 34-year-old as he was trapped plumb in front of the wicket for just three runs while trying to play across the line to Tom Curran.
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“It’s a team that other countries nearly want to emulate as much as they can, and that’s something we’re very proud of”, allrounder Moeen Ali said yesterday.
