Spin to win as Australia beat rain to edge series 3-2

Australia have spun themselves to a 3-2 series victory over England with a rapid opening stand by Matt Short and Travis Head ensuring they were miles ahead of the par score when the heavens opened in Bristol.

Short (58 off 30) and Head (31 off 26) put on 78 in 7.1 overs, which had the visitors comfortably 49 runs in front of the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern target (2-116) when the rain arrived four balls after the 20 overs required to constitute a match had been bowled.

That target would have been considerably more had Australia's spinners been unable engineer a stunning England batting collapse for the second time in the five-match series.

The hosts were cruising towards a total of 400-plus after being sent in by Steve Smith, who stood in as captain for the fifth ODI with Mitch Marsh missing the series decider through soreness.

Openers Ben Duckett (107) and Phil Salt (45), along with Smith's counterpart Harry Brook (72), brought up 200 runs for the hosts with more than half their innings remaining, continuing in the same fashion as they finished at Lord's two days ago.

But they lost their final eight wickets – all to spin – for 107 runs to fall to 309 all out in the final over of their innings.

Adam Zampa copped the full force of England's targeted assault as his first 17 balls of the match cost him 44 runs, while Mitchell Starc (0-47), Aaron Hardie (2-38) and debutant Cooper Connolly (0-31) all went at more than seven runs per over.

Brook's third straight half-century, which included his maiden one-day hundred at Durham and a 58-ball 87 at Lord's, saw him overtake Virat Kohli (310) as the highest run-scorer against Australia as an opposing skipper in a men's bilateral ODI series with 312 at 78.

But his dismissal on the final ball of Zampa's third over, where he picked out long off trying to hit the leg-spinner for a seventh six, altered the course of the match as England capitulated thereafter.

Zampa (2-74) also removed fellow Lord's destroyer Liam Livingstone caught behind for a duck, whose 25-ball half-century had been responsible for their 186-run thrashing of Australia in the previous match.

In scenes similar to their collapse in the series opener at Trent Bridge 11 days ago, England suffered at the hands of the tourists' array of spin-bowling allrounders, who combined with Zampa to send down the most spin overs (32.2) ever delivered by Australia in the men's ODIs.

Head (4-28) was the chief destroyer as he ran through the middle- to lower-order for his career-best figures in the format.

One of those wickets was century-maker Duckett who was in imperious touch with 13 fours and two sixes in his first 90 balls faced before falling into Head's plan, skying one to Josh Hazlewood as he tried to clear mid-off who had strategically been left inside the fielding restriction circle.

Australia's quicks sent down just two overs from the 17th over onwards as spinners Zampa, Head, Maxwell (2-49) and Short (0-6) suffocated England's batters with the trio of Head, Zampa and Maxwell sharing the final eight wickets to fall after Hardie took the first two.

The match marked the latest international England had ever played during a home summer and with wet weather forecast to hit in the afternoon, Head and Short wasted no time getting started in trying to get Australia ahead of the DLS par score at the 20-over mark.

They were in front in just half that time as Head smashed two sixes and Short four, the latter's hits including two over the temporary Mike Procter Stand erected on the northern side of Bristol's County Ground

Short reached his maiden one-day intentional fifty in just 23 balls – the quickest by an Australian against England in men's ODIs.

"Batting second you get the luxury of knowing where you need to be at," Marsh said post-match. "I thought the way the guys executed at the start, both 'Shorty' and 'Heady', to get us ahead of the run rate was outstanding."

Despite the pair's dismissal, Smith (36no) and Josh Inglis (28no) kept ahead of target and not even a mysterious shoe malfunction to right-arm quick Matthew Potts could prevent England from bowling the 20 overs required to make match live.

The rain arrived four balls later with Australia 2-165, bringing a premature end to an enthralling series where much like last year's Ashes, England had fought back from 0-2 down.

Head was adjudged player of the series for a return of 248 runs at 82.66 and six wickets at 10.33 across the five games.

It's been a long month for an Australian squad depleted by injury and illness, but they head home to this week with the series trophy in hand and more than a month to recuperate before their first assignment of the summer, a three-match ODI series against Pakistan beginning on November 4 at the MCG.

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Australia T20 squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Hazlewood (England games only), Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Riley Meredith, Matt Short (England games only), Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa

September 4: Australia beat Scotland by seven wickets

September 6: Australia beat Scotland by 70 runs

September 7: Australia beat Scotland by six wickets

September 11: Australia beat England by 28 runs

September 13: England beat Australia by three wickets

September 15: Match abandoned

Australia ODI squad: Mitch Marsh (c), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Short, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa. Reserve: Mahli Beardman

September 19: Australia beat England by seven wickets

September 21: Australia beat England by 68 runs

September 24: England beat Australia by 46 runs (DLS method)

September 27: England beat Australia by 186 runs

September 29: Australia beat England by 49 runs (DLS method)