England eye ODI sweep vs Aus

CHESTER-LE-STREET: Jason Roy scored his second hundred of the series as England beat Australia by six wickets on Thursday to move within one win of their first-ever 5-0 ODI clean sweep of their arch-rivals.

England, fresh from their 481 for six, the highest men’s ODI total of all time, in a crushing 242run win at Trent Bridge on Tuesday, ‘only’ needed 311 at the Riverside.

But what was still England’s second highest total batting second to win a match at this level, behind their 350 for three against New Zealand at Trent Bridge three years ago, was made to look insignificant as in-form openers Roy (101) and Jonny Bairstow (79) put on 174.

England finished on 314 for four, with Jos Buttler 54 not out as they won with 32 balls to spare. England, the No 1 side in this format, will now look to surpass their previous best ODI series result against world champions Australia -- 4-0, including a washout, in a fivematch home campaign in 2012 -at Old Trafford on Sunday.

This was Australia’s 15th defeat in 17 completed ODIs as again a side missing six firstchoice players in banned star batsmen Steve Smith and David Warner, as well as injured quicks Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood and sidelined all-rounder Mitchell Marsh.

Brief scores: Australia 310-8, 50 overs (S Marsh 101, A Finch 100, T Head 63; D Willey 4-43) lost to England 314-4, 44.4 overs (J Roy 101, J Bairstow 79, J Buttler 54 no) by 6 wkts