Australia seems to have picked up a bad habit of collapsing in this English tour. Twice in the game they let the game slip after having a firm hold of the situation. First they reduced England to 148/8 but thereafter a 76 run partnership helped England post a respectable total of 231/9. Then while chasing they were quite comfortably placed at 144/2 in 31^st over. But within a space of 21 balls, they lost 4 quick wickets and were tottering at 147/6 never to recover again. Scorecard

England opt to bat first

As the pitch used was same as that of previous ODI two days earlier, it was expected to be slow and low. Hence Morgan opted to bat first on winning the coin flip. Bairstow went for duck as he poked an away swinger from Starc to Carey behind the stumps. Roy, who has been out of form lately, showed a glimpse of his old self as he hit Hazlewood for 3 fours in an over.  But his innings was cut short by a runout. Root called him for a nonexistent single after dabbing the ball towards cover and he obliged only to fell short of a direct hit from Stoinis.

Root and Morgan then switched to defensive mode to prevent further slump. Their 61 run stand provided some stability to English innings but it was short lived. Root edged a full leg spinner from Zampa to first slip in an attempt to drive.His patient 39 off 73 balls consisted of four 4s and a 6.  Zampa also accounted for Morgan(42) as he misread the turn and was trapped in front of stumps.

Tom Curran and Adil Rashid to rescue

A flurry of wickets followed and England found themselves 8 down for 149 runs at the start of 3^rd powerplay. Tom Curran was joined by Adil Rashid at the fall of the 8^th wicket in the form of Woakes(26). The duo showed great resolve as they took their partnership forward with a boundary each over until the 49^th over. Cummins leaked 18 off the penultimate over as Rashid scored 2 boundaries and a big one over square leg. Their 57-ball stand of 76 helped England set a target of 232 for Australia- a tricky one considering the nature of pitch.

Australia’s run chase

Archer began the defense on right note with two early scalps, both with extra bounce. Warner was caught behind as Archer’s short ball went across him. Stoinis lobbed up another short one from Archer for an easy catch by Buttler. Finch and Labuschagne, thereafter, took complete control of the game. They ran well between the wickets and with occasional boundaries took Australia past 100. Finch completed his fifty of 66 deliveries with fine sweep for four off Rashid. The game was slipping from England’s hand. The only option for them to remain in the match was to get some quick wickets. So Morgan brought back his quicks Archer and Woakes for a second spell and planned to bowl them out completely in search of those wickets.

Turn of tide

The plan worked. Woakes caught Labuschagne in front of stumps with an in-dipper, just two runs short of his half-century. Next over Archer bowled Marsh(1) with a fast length ball that didn’t bounce as per Marsh’s expectation. Woakes then removed Australian captain Finch(73) and last match highest scorer Maxwell(1) with similar deliveries. It was bowled a bit wide of stumps, batsman played down the wrong line as it didn’t come in as expected. It beat the bat and disturbed the timber. All of a sudden England had an upper hand on the game with Australia reeling at 147/6. Carey was the only recognised batsman left but he left it too late to make any positive move as his partners from other end kept getting out. Australia were bundled out for 207 handing England an emphatic win by 24 runs. Carey was the last man out, stumped as he stepped out to send Rashid’s googly out of the park but could not make any connection.