England seal series after Buttler blitz

In the end it was the Buttler with the cricket bat at the SCG who did it.

Jos Buttler’s stunning 100 blew apart Australia’s full-strength bowling attack to rally England to a total of 6-302 before taking a contentious catch to remove Steve Smith deep in Australia’s forlorn run chase.

The hosts fell 16 runs short in pursuit to lose the match and the series in straight sets.

It’s the first time since Sri Lanka’s upset in 2010 that Australia has a lost a bilateral ODI series on home soil and while that defeat came as a surprise seven years ago, the writing was on the wall this summer.

Australia’s ODI line-up has stuttered in the past 12 months and against an England team at the top of its game playing an aggressive, imaginative brand of cricket, Smith’s charges have been a step behind in every category.

And in ODI cricket that’s more than enough. 

Buttler was undoubtedly the hero and the major talking point for two reasons.

The first for his spellbinding batting display that saw him score his fifth ODI hundred off the last ball of the innings, a magic moment in front of 35,195 in attendance and under brilliant Sydney sunshine. 

The second, however, raised eyebrows when Smith edged a ball behind that only just carried to the ‘keeper. The third umpire Kumar Dharmasena was called upon to make the final decision on whether the ball carried and hit turf first or if the catch was clean.

Dharmasena ruled the former, Smith was out, the crowd booed, and Australia never fully recovered. 

Half-centuries to Mitch Marsh (55) and a Marcus Stoinis (56) kept Australia in the hunt, but England’s professional outfit proved too good with an unthinkable whitewash now in their sights. 

While England remained a model of consistency by naming the same XI for the third time this series, Australia made sweeping changes to the side that lost by four wickets in Brisbane.

NSW Blues pace pair Josh Hazlewood and Patrick Cummins were drafted in for Western Australia duo Andrew Tye and Jhye Richardson, while Tim Paine replaced Gabba debutant Alex Carey after recovering from illness.

Those changes were forecast prior to the match but the substitution of batsman Travis Head for leg-spinner Adam Zampa was not as clear, but the left-hander has appeared to be out of nick having averaged 29 in his past 10 ODIs with scores of five and seven this series.

Steve Smith won the toss and decided to “mix it up” by bowling first, a move that looked a masterstroke when England slumped to 4-107 inside the 23rd over.

Jason Roy (19) hit Cummins to Finch at cover, Alex Hales (1) picked out Adam Zampa at mid-off from the bowling of allrounder Stoinis, but the pick of the early wickets belonged to the South Australian leggie Zampa who completely duped Jonny Bairstow (39) with a beautiful wrong’un that spun sharply off the dry deck, past the inside edge of an expansive drive and clattered into the luminescent woodwork.

By the time Joe Root (22) dragged on a good-length ball from Josh Hazlwood, the tourists, for the first time in the series, looked to be in a spot of bother. 

Australia’s fielding to that point had been flawless. Cummins put in two terrific dives on the boundary in front of the Dally Messenger Stand to save four, and even lumbering allrounder Mitchell Marsh was cat-like at short cover pouncing on well-struck drives to deny England certain runs.

While the ground fielding was superb, the catching was not ideal. Smith put down Eoin Morgan at mid-wicket diving to his left off Zampa, who also dropped Buttler on 70 mistiming his own dive at long-on.

But the worst effort belonged to Cameron White, who – in a carbon copy of Hazlewood’s clanger in the fifth Magellan Ashes Test – let a skied ball off the bat of Moeen slip through his hands and into his chest.

The Morgan spill cost Australia 23 when he was out bowled attempting to dab Hazlewood to third man for one. If only he’d been watching Sydney Sixers allrounder Carlos Brathwaite as to how to correctly execute a dab at the SCG. 

From there on out it was the Buttler-Chris Woakes show. 

While Buttler, with his elastic wrists, carved up at one end, Woakes carried on from his match-winning cameo at the Gabba to post 53 from just 36 balls, with a towering six over deep backward square leg bringing up his half-century.

But if Woakes was the 9pm fireworks show for the kids, the midnight display belonged to Buttler, who exploded from 52 to 100 in just 16 balls.

The right-hander rocketed into the nineties with consecutive sixes off Pat Cummins before swatting the next ball to the cow corner rope, perfectly bisecting the two fielders stationed at long-on and deep mid-wicket. 

Having been put on strike by a penultimate-ball single by Woakes, Buttler needed two to reach three-figures and he found the required runs courtesy of a shanked drive to long-on to deliver another final-ball fairytale between these two sides at this iconic venue. 

Aaron Finch’s purple patch in the green and gold continued as he scored 62 while the lean trot of his opening partner David Warner continued, out for 19 in the fourth over.

England were hamstrung by the hamstring of Liam Plunkett, who left with the field after bowling just eight balls inside the opening powerplay.

It meant Eoin Morgan had to get more overs out of the part-time off-spin of Test skipper Joe Root, whose 8.4 wicketless overs cost 60 runs. 

Australia’s new No.3 Cameron White looked empowered by his promotion up the order in muscling three balls to the fence until a rearing delivery by Mark Wood has his name on it.

Finch and Smith put on 60 for the third wicket as the former again appeared unfazed as he clubbed three sixes in his 53-ball stay.

But the spin of Moeen Ali undid the Victorian, who was out lbw after missing a sweep. Finch referred the decision but ball tracking confirmed timber was set to be sufficiently disturbed.

Smith and Mitch Marsh added 68 without needing to take a risk, but the skipper’s controversial dismissal was a hammer blow to Australia’s chances.

Like he had done in the first two matches of the series, Marsh made a solid contribution with the bat – 55 from 66 balls tonight – but got out just as Australia needed him to kick on and go up another gear.

He was out in the 39th over, calmly caught at wide long-on by Alex Hales trying to pull Adil Rashid into the Members Pavilion. 

It was left to Marcus Stoinis and Tim Paine to rescue the Australians, the former familiar in the role after his heroics in Auckland last summer almost pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in ODI cricket history.

Stoinis’ hand of 56 from 43 balls gave the committed crowd some hope, but even the powerful Warrior couldn’t find the rope enough in the closing stages. 

As they have shown in the series, England’s ODI team proved they’re equally resilient defending a total as they are setting one.

Even without Plunkett, Morgan marshalled his troops like a combat general with military precision whose next objective is to outflank his enemy in Adelaide on Australia day in search of four-nil. 

Australia: David Warner, Aaron Finch, Cameron White, Steve Smith (c), Mitchell Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, Tim Paine (wk), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood

England: Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Alex Hales, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Liam Plunkett, Mark Wood.

2017-18 International Fixtures

Gillette ODI Series v England

Australia ODI squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Cameron White, Adam Zampa.

England ODI squad: Eoin Morgan (c), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Tom Curran, Alex Hales, Dawid Malan, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.

First ODI England won by five wickets at the MCG

Second ODI England won by four wickets at the Gabba

Third ODI SCG, England won by 16 runs at the SCG

Fourth ODI Adelaide Oval, January 26. Tickets

Fifth ODI Perth Stadium, January 28. Tickets

Prime Minister's XI

PM's XI v England Manuka Oval, February 2. Tickets

Gillette T20 trans-Tasman Tri-Series

England T20 squad: Eoin Morgan (c), Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, David Willey, Mark Wood.

First T20I Australia v NZ, SCG, February 3. Tickets

Second T20I Australia v England, Blundstone Arena, February 7. Tickets

Third T20I Australia v England, MCG, February 10. Tickets

Fourth T20I NZ v England, Wellington, February 14

Fifth T20I NZ v Australia, Eden Park, February 16

Sixth T20I NZ v England, Seddon Park, February 18

Final TBC, Eden Park, February 21