A Travis Head-inspired Australia have won their race against the weather to beat England by 49 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method at Bristol and clinch the ODI series 3-2 in a soggy, anti-climactic finale to their UK tour.
Head, who began the five-match series with a glorious hundred, ended it on Sunday with the best spell of his part-time bowling career, 4-28 off 6.2 overs, before another blistering cameo with the bat, accompanied by a record-breaking half-century from Matt Short, won the day.
The focus before rain, almost inevitably, had the final say was if Australia, guided by stand-in captain Steve Smith, could outsprint the storm clouds and score enough in their reply to England’s 309 over the first 20 overs – the number needed to ensure a result – to guarantee a win on DLS.
They did just that, going at a helter-skelter pace over the first powerplay before ending up at 2-165 – perfect timing as it turned out, with the rain starting to belt down just four balls after the mandatory 20-over mark was reached.
Smith was on 36no alongside Josh Inglis (28no) with Australia able to celebrate a victory in the series despite having endured a host of injuries and illness over three trying weeks.
The latest was Marsh’s sore back, suffered in the fourth ODI at Lord’s, but former Test skipper Smith proved the safest pair of hands as replacement from the moment he won the toss and inserted England on a damp, chilly day.
He had to overcome a swift headache as England launched a brutal early assault, but found his unlikely hero in player-of-the-match Head as Australia’s army of part-time spinners expertly stymied the charge.
Smith watched star spinner Adam Zampa get clouted for six sixes by England counterpart Harry Brook while home opener Ben Duckett was racing to a brilliant hundred.
But mixing and matching with eight different bowlers to help repair the early carnage, Smith’s depleted attack worked marvels after England had blitzed to 2-202 just before the halfway point, only to collapse to 309 off 49.2 overs.
Brook had earlier continued his dazzling form with 72 off 52 balls, while Duckett, who blasted 107 off 91 deliveries for his second ODI century, continued the flying start given to them by Phil Salt’s manic 27-ball 45 at the top of the innings.
Brook warmed up the chilly full-house of 13,000 with another bravura knock following a ton and half-century in his last two innings.
The captain backed himself to take down Australia’s supposed mid-innings controller Zampa while targeting the short Bristol boundaries, clocking him for half-a-dozen of his seven sixes.
But when Zampa finally tempted the England captain to go for one big heave too many, tossing up a slower one which prompted a miscue and a neat catch from Glenn Maxwell in the deep, the home assault unravelled.
Head came on to grab the big wicket of Duckett, while Zampa, expensive again with his 2-74, regained his mojo by getting danger man Liam Livingstone, last seen at Lord’s crashing Mitchell Starc for 28 off an over, caught behind for a duck.
England stuttered so badly, with Head bowling beautifully while finding plenty of turn, they only just limped past 300 in the penultimate over, thanks mainly to Adil Rashid’s 36 off 35 balls before he too perished to the Aussie opener.
With dark clouds overhead and rain predicted, Australia weren’t about to hang around as Head, with a blistering 31 off 26 balls including one over when he smashed Will Jacks’ spin for 20, set the tone.
But Short (58 off 30) was even more destructive, reaching his half-century off just 23 balls with a fourth huge six over midwicket.
It was the fastest ODI half-century by an Australian ever recorded against England, and featured one monster blow that even sailed out the County Ground.
There were a few comical scenes as the 20-over mark loomed and rain threatened as England appeared to resort to time-wasting tactics, with pacer Matthew Potts making a strategic, and not very subtle, call for a new boot.
“We’ve seen this movie before…” chuckled Ricky Ponting in the commentary box.
