Aussies smash England
RECALLED opener Travis Head fell just shy of a century as Australia downed England by three wickets last night to avert a one-day series whitewash.
Chasing England’s meagre 196, Head made 96 as Australia won with 13 overs to spare at Adelaide Oval in the fourth one-dayer of the series.
The result leaves the series 3-1 in England’s favour ahead of the last game tomorrow in Perth and denies the tourists their first clean sweep of a ODI series in Australia.
Head underpinned Australia’s 7-197, the chase coming after pacemen Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins produced a record bowling start, reducing England to 5-8.
Cummins claimed careerbest ODI figures of 4-24 and Hazlewood (3-39) took his wickets in his initial four overs .
England crashed to 5-8 after 6.2 overs. Australia’s previous best ODI bowling start, with the caveat of dismissing half the opposition, was 5-17 against minnows Kenya in 2002 and Zimbabwe in 2004.
“Certainly it was the perfect start for us,” Cummins said.
Four of England’s top-six batsmen made ducks and the tourists didn’t hit a boundary until the 15th over.
English all-rounder Chris Woakes ensured some respectability, smacking five sixes and top-scoring with 78 from 82 balls, though the visitors were all out in 44.5 overs.
Head, recalled to the side to open the batting because of Aaron Finch’s hamstring injury, steered the run chase with aplomb.
Despite the early losses of David Warner (13), Cameron White (3) and skipper Steve Smith (4), Head peeled off a half-century from 55 balls.