The fifth and the final ODI of the series between England and Australia will be played at Old Trafford on Sunday with the hosts gunning for a whitewash.
Can Australia prevent the repeat of that scoreline from their previous away series against South Africa? Join The Roar for live scores and coverage of the fifth ODI from 8pm (AEST).
The change of venue brought no change of fortune for Australia who were comprehensively beaten by England yet again by six wickets, with more than five overs to spare. England moved to four-nil up in the series, to leave Australia already dreaming of the plane home.
Australia had made three changes to the side that was thrashed at Trent Bridge, with a recall for spinner Nathan Lyon and paceman Michael Neser in place of Glenn Maxwell, D’Arcy Short and Andrew Tye, and a debut for batsman Alex Carey.
England also gave an ODI debut to Craig Overton, with Liam Plunkett rested in the encounter.
Winning the toss again, Australia this time decided to bat, with Aaron Finch moved back to open with Travis Head, and, this time, they got off to a very good start, as the pair put on 101 for the second wicket, before Head was out to a long hop from Adil Rashid for 63.
Shaun Marsh then joined Finch at the crease, and their partnership was worth 123, as the England bowlers were kept at bay for the first time in this series. Finch went on to complete his 11th ODI century and his 5th against England, before he was bowled by Mark Wood for exactly 100, including three sixes. Four balls later the same bowler bowled Marcus Stoinis for just 1.
However, Marsh was still going, and, together with Ashton Agar who was promoted up the order, and they took Australia past the 250 mark before Agar was caught behind off Rashid.
Marsh and Carey added 39 for the fifth wicket, with Marsh scoring all but five of them, and he brought up his second century of the series before he was caught by Overton off Willey for 101, which included 4 sixes.
The visitors then underwent a late collapse, as Willey picked up three more wickets, and eventually closed at 310, with Willey’s four-wicket haul halting their charge at the end.
In reply, the England opening pair of Jason Roy picked up where they left off in Nottingham and took the attack to the Australian bowlers from the start. This time it was Roy, with the majority of the strike that led the way, as the bowling went for more than seven an over from the start.
Together the pair put on 174 for the first wicket, before Roy, shortly after completing his sixth ODI, was caught at short third man by Marsh off the bowling of Lyon for 101. Shortly afterwards, Bairstow himself fell in strange fashion, mistiming a shot straight into the gloves of Tim Paine behind the stumps off the bowling of Stanlake for 79.
But the job was nearly done by then and the win was achieved early, a 4-0 scoreline achieved.
Roy was named man of the match.
Prediction
England to make it 5-0 but expect it to be a slightly lower-scoring match than the previous two games.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of this 4th ODI at Chester-le-Street from 8pm (AEST) and don’t forget to drop a comment in the section below.
Perthstayer
Roar Rookie
Pedro - People are quick to forget the stain Smith and Warner brought upon Australian cricket. (I felt it was overdone but that "line" was the downfall). "Character" can win. Paine was there to do 2 jobs. He won one and lost one. Don't get me wrong, 5-0 stinks and wasn't a price needed to pay. But it was a very weak team vs World No.1. Many decent players are returning and Paine is likely to stand down.
riddler
Roar Rookie
i am a fan of paine.. as have said before.. if he can stay in the team, justifiably, great!! as for a few others.. prefer not to see them in the team again..
Krishna Singh
Roar Rookie
Don't know you ronan, but why you make up things on khawaja, just admit he did well against spin and stop unfair bashing of our only sub continent player. And i have question for hohns, 1) Out of the top 10 run scorers in JLT ODI TOURNAMENT last year, how many of them are in the current ODI Squad? 2) Why do you select players based on their performances in BBL Tournament? Head and short were not in the top 10 ODD and they get unlimited games, khawaja and maddinson in top 2 and they get 0 games, where is fairness
Krishna Singh
Roar Rookie
Stonis shouldn't be at 3, khawaja should be at 3 and why it always comes to the captain, when team loses... Paine should get a bit more time, otherwise it will look like sri lanka who keeps changing their captain every few months!!. It was selectors who gave senior bowlers unnecessary rest..
Krishna Singh
Roar Rookie
Tim Paine has been thrown under a bus by an inept Aussie selection panel.He will made the scapegoat and Australia may again lose a very talented player.Nothing about cricket with CA all about politics. Let the sackings begin from the top.. And how bad was our batting this series, how is khawaja not at 3 and stonis at 3, worst call. Its not all downhill because even though we have 2 wins 13 losses recently but they were to the best two sides at the moment in ODIs England and India but in a knockout game Mitch Starc might get on a roll and bingo bango bongo turn a match and tournament on its head. Just make key changes, get khawaja in at 3, and get our stars back
James
Guest
Its interesting to note Butlers strike rate of 90 in this game is exactly the same as Finchs, 1 less than Heads and 10 more than Marshs average. Its tough to compare grounds and all that but youd think that your top batsmen would have a higher average strike rate than a guy who is basically a one man team with players falling around him.
Pedro The Fisherman
Roar Rookie
No room for him in the Test team either. Carey is the future!
Pedro The Fisherman
Roar Rookie
What makes you think Paine has a particular leadership skill?
Pedro The Fisherman
Roar Rookie
"character" never won a cricket match that I can recall!
Stephen
Guest
Ronan i checked the news on this and you have made up these stats, khawaja was not dropped and had a 290 run partnership after they were going for quick runs which is why the 2 run outs occurred, not 5, care to share any article link with yoru made up information, seriously mate your bias against khawaja is becoming a joke whereas your love for finch is absurd
Big daddy
Guest
Your down 4-0 and play Carey again. Why wouldn't you give him an opportunity with the gloves. Paine is lucky he has the (c) against his name, wouldn't make it on form. Now we know why he wasis dropped all those years ago.
maverick
Roar Rookie
@Krishna Singh,Paine was awful in Australia as well.He has a strike rate of 70 in odi cricket which is unacceptable in this day and age.Most of the keepers of other countries score heavily in odi,just look at England. You can't captain the side when you are a liability with the bat.Finch can easily captain this side.Carey or Handscomb should be the keeper.
riddler
Roar Rookie
tim speaks well.. a quality guy with integrity.. maybe he doesn't make our best xi.. but he has more character than a few some people want to come back.. character for me.. the rest will follow..
JimmyB
Guest
Dream on mate.
riddler
Roar Rookie
that is our first whitewash 5-0
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
That's that from me though, hope you had a good time following this live blog and hope you will be back for the one-off T20I next week. Till that time, do follow me on Twitter @suneerchowdhary where it's all things cricket. Ciao.
riddler
Roar Rookie
agar, stanlake, lyon had 10.. richardson had 9.. short bowled 1.. so stonis had last couple of overs with richardson.. that make stonis one of 5 bowlers.. so that makes him a main bowler?? stonis who batted at 3?? he is not a top order batter nor bowler.. something very very wrong with how we are gauging our all rounders now...
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Jos Buttler should be the most obvious choice for man-of-the-match but who will be the man-of-the-series? Bairstow or Roy? Moeen or Rashid?
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
More like the main bowlers were used up early to try and pick up wickets with the match never expected to last full 50 overs anyway.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
This has been a match to savour for the neutral. Bowlers had a little something for them from the pitch and we have a 206/9 beat 205 in an ODI - brilliant, brilliant stuff. More of these pitches and it wouldn't do anybody any harm (by no means should all be low-scorers though). England have won it 5-0, not often have Australia been beaten by that margin but twice now in less than two years have teams managed that against them. Interesting times ahead for them. As far as England are concerned, they will be up against the second-ranked side in the world and dare I say, they will be favourites to win that series too. Might just be tested a tad more though one feels.