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The series will be on the line when England and Australia face off in the fifth and the final ODI at Old Trafford on Sunday. You can follow the live blog of this game on The Roar from 8:30 pm AEST.
When Australia went 2-0 up in the series, having won all but one of their previous 12 games against England, not too many expected the hosts to come back in a manner like this.
They have notched up two wins in a row since then, scoring 300 on both occasions and what makes it even sweeter is they have done it batting first and second respectively over the two games.
At Old Trafford in the third ODI, it was a slow turner of a track that assisted their spinners in running through the Aussie batsmen. At Headingley, David Willey grabbed the early initiative for them before their batsmen, led by Eoin Morgan, turned up the heat on what looked like a very inexperienced Australian bowling lineup.
Pat Cummins was a part of the World Cup-winning playing XI for Australia but the absence of support proved telling.
John Hastings looked out of his depth while James Pattinson went for far too many to help his captain to exert any kind of control on the opposition, leaving Australia stung by the positive English approach.
Come the final ODI, Australia will need to look to redo their XI again.
If the track at Old Trafford remains as slow as it did a few days ago in the third ODI, Ashton Agar could get a call-up. What remains to be seen is if they bring in Mitchell Starc again after he was rested from the fourth game.
England can be awfully proud of the way they have played in two ODI series now, the first against New Zealand resulted in a 3-2 win and they can now replicate the result in this second one.
Their bowlers pushed them into a position of great strength in the third ODI after the James Taylor century before Morgan and the rest of the middle-order pulled off an exciting win in the fourth.
What made that win even more special is that England haven’t had too many successful chases in ODI when the target has been more than 300 and that result could well be attributed to the change in their approach.
Come the final game, they could go in unchanged and that isn’t just restricted to their playing XI – the result could well hinge on whether they can continue playing with the same attitude.
Follow the live scores and blog of this fifth ODI between England and Australia from 8:30 pm AEST on Friday and post your comments in the section below.
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