AUSSIE FOOLS!

Superb England level one-day series after spectacular collapse from Finch & Co

ENGLAND’S brilliant bowlers took all the plaudits by forcing a win that keeps their proud ODI record alive ahead of a winner-takes-all final on Wednesday. day.

Chris Woakes and Jofra Archer per formed stunning heroics with the ball to grab three wickets apiece and a game that was all but gone, as the Aussies crumbled under pressure, not for the first time on this tour.

With Eoin Morgan pulling the strings like a master, Sam Curran picked up the baton after their game-changing spell to take 3-35 in a 24-run win that made it 1-1 with one to play.

And it was Adil Rashid and Tom Curran with the bat who had earlier rescued their side from 149-8, and took them to the 231-9 they had no right to reach.

Five years to the day since they lost their last ODI series at home, England were facing the same result to the same team on the same ground.

But with Aussie skipper Aaron Finch and Marnus Labuschagne cruising towards their target of 232, sitting pretty on 144-2 in the 31st over, Morgan took the perfect gamble to bring back Woakes and Archer and it blew the game wide open. A smart review from Woakes for lbw against Labuschagne gave England their first little sniff, when reliable umpire Michael Gough made a rare mistake in denying the initial appeal.

Archer ( left) had already caused damage w with the early wi wickets of David Warn Warner and Marcus Stoinis, and he took advantage of the opening by squeezing through the defences of Mitch Marsh.

Operating consistently around 90mph, there is no batsman in the world who would relish starting against Archer, but with minds scrambled at one end, Woakes ploughed on at the other, as the Aussies began to choke. He bowled Finch for 73 and after six more threatening deliveries from Archer, he cleaned up Glenn Maxwell to make it four wickets for three runs in 21 balls.

With Australia left reeling on 147-6, the game was there for the taking, with Rashid and the Curran brothers left with the responsibility to finish it off. And with Sam (below centre, after taking the wicket of Mitchell Starc) leading the way, they did just that.

It had been Rashid and Tom who had saved England’s blushes in the first place with the bat, after a largely miserable innings had been dominated by Aussie bowlers.

With no batsman finding any fluency, the pair added a whopping 76 runs in nine overs to give their team a chance, and it was the bowlers who took it.