The Buttler did it! Jos orchestrates the great escape

England have completed a 5-0 ODI whitewash of Australia as the visitors' best bowling effort of this ODI tour was not enough to overcome their worst effort with the bat.

Jos Buttler's brilliant unbeaten 110 orchestrated a tense run chase that saw England overcome Australia's below-par 205 with nine wickets down and only eight balls remaining.

When the ninth wicket fell with England 11 short of the target, Buttler nonchalantly smashed the next ball back over the bowler's head and into the crowd to bring up his century from 117 balls.

No.11 Jake Ball dead batted Ashton Agar for a maiden to raucous cheers from the 24,000 Old Trafford faithful, and they erupted when Buttler carved a Marcus Stoinis delivery through the off-side to complete the win.

Besides Buttler, no other England batsman scored more than 20.

With such a meagre total to defend, Billy Stanlake tore through England's top order with three quick wickets, before a rear-guard resistance that found Australia's bowlers wanting when the match was there for the taking.

Buttler's innings was one of genius in the situation, but it failed to disguise Australia's poor batting effort as this young and developing Australian ODI side once again failed to put together a complete performance.

Image Id: EBA61A4330D547C3B24D66281EDE018E Image Caption: Buttler played a superb hand to secure a 5-0 series win // Getty

Australia's skipper Tim Paine could be heard telling England's openers, "You blokes are walking around like you've already won the World Cup" as the home side started their run chase. Their confidence will only have grown having won a tough match from a seemingly lost position at 8-114.

Paine won all five coin tosses in this ODI series and it was the only area Australia had consistently delivered results, and he opted to bat first.

With nothing to lose Australia came out swinging and raced to 0-52 in five overs. But in a depressingly familiar story across the past month, it all unravelled.

Moeen Ali's introduction brought two wickets in his first over; Aaron Finch bowled when a short ball went under the bat and Marcus Stoinis swept straight to short fine leg for a second-ball duck.

Travis Head scored his third fifty of the series (but he has failed to push on beyond 63 in any of them). Here a leading edge off Liam Plunkett landed in the safe hands of Eoin Morgan at mid-wicket.

Shaun Marsh was Australia's leading run-scorer in the series with 288 runs at 72 in the five matches, with two centuries. But here he was beaten in the flight by Moeen, overbalanced and had his back foot in the air as Buttler whipped off the bails for a superb stumping.

Paine ran himself out chasing a quick single for one. He dropped the ball into the leg side and took off but Buttler was quick to the ball, disposed of his glove, gathered, turned and threw down the stumps at the non-striker's end.

Image Id: 2C120C88F58C45C49180C3D5CC29FBA1 Image Caption: Paine was run out by Buttler for 1 // Getty

From 0-60 in the seventh over Australia had slipped to 5-100 at the start of the 15th and Paine's 36 runs in this series were the lowest ever return by an Australian captain in a five-match ODI series.

Alex Carey played his second match of the series as a specialist batsman with Glenn Maxwell again missing out with a shoulder injury. He compiled a tidy 44 from 40 balls to hint at the class he has, but it was another start gone begging for the Australians.

England debutant Sam Curran had seen his first two overs dispatched for 25 runs but the first ball of his second spell found the outside edge of Carey's bat for Buttler to pouch a simple take.

Ashton Agar's batting has been a rare bright spot for Australia on this tour, but he made a horrible misjudgement to shoulder arms to his second ball. He took guard outside leg stump and offered no shot as Curran's delivery crashed into middle and off to give the 20-year-old a second ODI wicket.

Image Id: F6DF80455001405F8FE76CCA9AFB9441 Image Caption: Agar let the ball from Curran cannon into his stumps // Getty

Kane Richardson was then run out when D'Arcy Short called him through before sending him back as Buttler was again outstanding with the gloves.

Adil Rashid had set a new record for the most wickets in a five-match series by an England spinner when he trapped Nathan Lyon in front for his 12th victim, and Moeen joined him on the mark when he claimed last man Stanlake to finish with 4-46 from 8.4 overs.

Short had been recalled to the Australia XI to bat at No.7 for this match after two failures at opener. He has been working extensively with Ricky Ponting in the nets and the benefits of that tutelage perhaps began to show with an unbeaten 47 from 52 balls.

Agar shook off his dismissal with the bat to open the bowling and had Jason Roy in his first over.

Then Stanlake, who has shown glimpses of the world-class bowler he could yet become, was at his most hostile here with pace and bounce, regularly touching 150kph.

He generated an early chance as Johnny Bairstow edged wide of third slip, then cramped him for room as he shaped to cut and forced a bottom edge to canon into the woodwork.

Image Id: 01B49959167B45B999C2E5C3E3F8AE4B Image Caption: Bairstow was one of three early wickets for Stanlake // Getty

Two balls later, he had Joe Root edge to Shaun Marsh in the slips.

That Australia was able to have a slip at all as deep into the innings as the 10th over was indicative of their best performance with the ball on this tour.

Stanlake kept England on the back foot and when Eoin Morgan tried to come forward, he was bowled through the gate for a duck by a thunderbolt arrowed at the top of off stump.

Stanlake bowled five overs on the trot to open the innings, and it was indicative only the last ball of his spell was smashed to the boundary, a wide ball punished by Alex Hales.

Hales then tried to repeat the stroke to a widish delivery from Richardson, recalled after two games on the sidelines, and an edge sailed through for Paine to glove and England were 5-50.

Moeen was watchful against Nathan Lyon but it was Stoinis who found the edge, before Richardson seemed to have Australia on top with two wickets in two balls. Curran stood his ground after edging behind and was given out on review, and Liam Plunkett's wild heave gave Richardson his second.

Image Id: 48B55EC991EB426E844D7B64C76EB6AC Image Caption: Richardson struck twice in the one over // Getty

But Rashid saw out the hat-trick ball then held his nerve, seeing out the overs from Lyon and Stanlake as Buttler put the finishing touches on a win that sunk Australian ODI cricket ever deeper into the doldrums.

England: Jonny Bairstow, Jason Roy, Alex Hales, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Jake Ball.

Australia: Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Shaun Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, D'Arcy Short, Alex Carey, Tim Paine (c/wk), Ashton Agar, Kane Richardson, Billy Stanlake, Nathan Lyon

Qantas tours of the UK and Zimbabwe

Australia T20 squad: Aaron Finch (c), Alex Carey (vc), Ashton Agar, Travis Head, Nic Maddinson, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, D’Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Andrew Tye, Jack Wildermuth

England T20 squad: Eoin Morgan (c), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, David Willey

Qantas Tour of the UK

June 7: Australia beat Sussex by 57 runs at Hove

June 9: Australia beat Middlesex by 101 runs at Lord's

June 13: England won by three wickets at The Oval

June 16: England won by 38 runs in Cardiff

June 19: England won by 242 runs at Trent Bridge

June 21: England won by six wickets in Durham

June 24: England won by one wicket at Old Trafford

June 27: Only T20, Edgbaston (D/N)

Qantas T20I tri-series Tour of Zimbabwe

July 1: Zimbabwe vs Pakistan

July 2: Pakistan vs Australia

July 3: Australia vs Zimbabwe

July 4: Zimbabwe vs Pakistan

July 5: Pakistan vs Australia

July 6: Australia vs Zimbabwe

July 8: Final