JOS IS THE BOSS

Buttler’s magnificent century seals series win over Aussies

It was hard to disagree with Eoin Morgan’s assertion that this was England’s best win of his tenure as one-day captain.

It came on the kind of surface upon which they have stumbled before and with the handicap of being a bowler light against the world champions.

ahead of a five-match series versus australia that has been sealed at the earliest opportunity, Morgan said the challenge would be to win in different ways and differing conditions.

this one ticked all the boxes and showed lessons had been learned from the one blemish on his charge sheet: the Champions trophy semi- final defeat by Pakistan last summer when failure to adapt saw them sacrifice their best chance of a global 50-over crown.

trying to post their customary 300, they bombed for 211 in Cardiff and were soundly beaten. On a similarly sluggish surface here, they set a more conservative target and burst past it after Jos Buttler, who completed his fifth ODI century off the final ball of the innings, shared an outstanding, unbroken seventh-wicket stand of 113 inside 12 overs with Chris woakes.

It was a breathtaking finale to what had previously been a stop- start innings against an australia attack which reunited the trio of ashes pace bowlers for the first time in the series.

In contrast, England lost Liam Plunkett to a hamstring injury as he aborted what would have been his ninth delivery, forcing Morgan to juggle limited bowling resources. the introduction of Joe Root’s occasional off-spin in Brisbane proved a masterstroke; here it was a necessity.

‘this is right up there. Jos’s innings was a huge contribution in what was our best performance as a group to date,’ Morgan said.

‘there were a lot of questions asked of us. with the bat, the way the pitch turned out, it wasn’t as good as we thought it would be, and we never got away from australia. It was a bit of a cat fight and Jos anchored the innings until about the 40th over and then really did pull the trigger.

‘In Cardiff reverse swing played a big part and it did again today. they got it going early. australia are a very strong line-up and this series had the potential to exploit some of the weaknesses and cracks in our group.

‘I am so proud of everybody in the team. Liam going down was a blow but Joe stood up and all the bowlers contributed. It was awesome.’

England had never previously won a bilateral one-day series in australia. Now they are chasing a whitewash to put this tour’s ashes woes well and truly behind them and complete the transformation from the feckless team that exited the 2015 world Cup at the group stage to the fearless one with an addiction to winning.

this was the slowest of Buttler’s five ODI tons, coming off 83 balls, but provided a late surge of momentum for England to take into the second half of the game. It was his third from a position of No 6 or lower — a feat no-one has bettered in five decades of limited-overs internationals.

Upon returning to the dressing room, Jonny Bairstow — one of a quartet of victims who had struggled to force the ball away in a mid-point total of 116 — judged 270 to be the par score they required.

But the adventure of woakes saw it upgraded as he put bat to ball in the same manner he had at the Gabba on Friday night. the warwickshire all- rounder followed Buttler’s skimming low six off Josh Hazlewood by depositing a pull off Pat Cummins from the very next ball.

that brought up the 250 at the start of the 47th over and a rattled Cummins went on to concede 24 runs off the penultimate one.

Buttler successfully reviewed an LBw decision from the first ball of the final over from Mitchell starc and although he lost the strike, woakes returned it after crashing a four and a six over the on side to reach a 35-ball 50. a scrambled two from a starc full toss rounded off the innings and set australia a target of 303 to keep the series alive.

when Root — who was presented with his 100th cap by dual code rugby international sam Burgess before play — was collared for successive sixes by aaron Finch in the 20th over, it appeared the lack of resources at Morgan’s disposal would tell.

But once again for this England team, a player put his hand up when it was needed most: adil Rashid dismissed Finch for 62 — after two centuries in a row — by pinning him on the sweep. after smith succumbed in a moment of late drama, when Buttler scooped up a low catch in his right glove, the gauntlet was thrown to all-rounders Mitchell Marsh and Marcus stoinis and gloveman tim Paine to finish the job.

that they could not do so was down to a superb collective effort, closed out by Mark wood and woakes after Marsh was held in the deep off Rashid. and in a role reversal of the ashes, it is now smith exasperated, talking about his batting struggles. His mood will hardly have been helped by a fine of 40 per cent of his match fee for a slow over rate.