David Warner’s golden summer with the bat has continued with a century at the SCG as Australia beat England by three wickets in the opening match of the tri series on Friday.
Warner, who was troubled by a hamstring problem, scored 127 from 115 balls – only his third hundred in 51 ODI appearances – as the hosts limbered up for the World Cup by chasing down England’s 234 with 60 balls to spare and claim a bonus points victory.
The tourists won the toss and elected to bat and memories of their disastrous 2013 Ashes series soon resurfaced as they were reduced to 3-12 after just four overs as Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins ripped through their top order.
But a fine 121 off 136 balls from new skipper Eoin Morgan gave his bowlers something to defend on a slow wicket.
Despite their below-par total, England’s bowled reasonably well at the start of the Australian innings with the big-hitting Aaron Finch (15) playing on to a Chris Woakes delivery.
Shane Watson (16) was dismissed cheaply after becoming frustrated by some tight bowling and lofting a Chris Jordan delivery to Woakes, who held on to a difficult catch at deep mid-wicket to reduce the hosts to 2-71.
But the arrival of the red-hot Steve Smith steadied any nerves to effectively take the game away from England before he played all around a Moeen Ali delivery having looked untroubled in reaching 37 off 47 balls.
That brought stand-in skipper George Bailey to the crease and the Tasmanian did little to alleviate scrutiny about his position as he scratched around for 10 runs before mishooking a Woakes delivery to wicketkeeper Jos Buttler.
He was followed back in the pavilion two balls later by Glenn Maxwell who was unlucky to be given out caught behind.
In a bid to get the bonus points Brad Haddin (16 off 8 balls) and Warner sacrificed their wickets in sake of quick runs before Faulkner hit the winning boundary.
Starc, who was named man of the match, trapped Ian Bell LBW with the first ball of the match then snared James Taylor in a similar manner two deliveries later.
Cummins (1-42) then had Joe Root caught in the slips for five with Moeen Ali (22) and Ravi Bopara (13) falling to Xavier Doherty (1-38) and James Faulkner (3-47) respectively.
Morgan’s fine knock aside, England failed to fire with the bat with no other player scoring more than 28.
Starc polished off the innings with the wicket of Morgan, who holed out to Maxwell in the 48th over then cleaned up the stumps of Steve Finn with a yorker to finish with figures of 4-42.
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