Australia vs England – Third ODI: Buttler’s brilliance seals series victory for tourists

Toss: Steven Smith, the Australia captain has won the toss and chose to bowl first against England in the third One-Day International at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Sydney on Sunday (January 21).

After a slow start to the series at the MCG, Woakes has impressed with bat and ball in the next two matches.

England set Australia 303 to win thanks to a wonderful century from Buttler in 83 balls.

Jonny Bairstow made 39, before he was clean bowled by Adam Zampa.

Steven Smith was caught up in a bit of controversy when he was seen rubbing his lips before he rubbed the ball.

Aaron Finch though was still at the crease and once again he passed a half century after scoring hundreds in the first two games of the series.

Australia captain Steve Smith admits he is running out of answers as he seeks to avert a one-day series defeat to England at the Sydney Cricket Ground today.

England needed this win to seal the series while Australia’s intentions were to stay alive.

They have also now gone at a rate of above a run a ball in each of their last eight matches, something attacking dynamo Jos Buttler said was largely down to players being encouraged to be adventurous with a modern-style of batting.

With Chris Woakes swinging the bat fearlessly at the other end 48 runs were plundered from the last 18 balls with Buttler running two from the final delivery to bring up his ton and take his side to 302-6. “Personally performing in Australia against [Pat] Cummins, [Mitchell] Starc and [Josh] Hazlewood is very satisfying”.

The captain, who passed Paul Collingwood into second place on England’s all-time ODI runscorers list and became the most prolific runmaker in games between England and Australia during his innings, mixed grace and power to good effect.

It was a time when Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler were in the middle of a good partnership.

Seldom can the Warwickshire all-rounder have timed the ball so sweetly as this current series and a sign of his touch came when he followed Buttler’s flat six off Hazlewood’s final delivery by slugging the next, from Cummins, into the stands at midwicket.

Jos Buttler, with his fifth ODI century, and Chris Woakes added an unbroken 113 – 48 runs coming off the last three overs – then Morgan marshalled his resources expertly, as he had at the Gabba, to coax the required overs from Joe Root to absorb Plunkett’s absence. Marsh carried on with Marcus Stoinis and both of them kept the scoreboard ticking but their contributions worth 55 and 56 weren’t enough to take the team over the line.

After the game, Smith urged the authorities to outlaw “soft signals” by the on-field officials during such incidents and empower the TV umpire to make the call directly.

Australia skipper Steve Smith: “We were chasing 30 too many and we couldn’t get that momentum going”. Stoinis and Tim Paine (31 not out) gave Australia a faint hope but were unable to replicate Butler and Woakes’s deeds as the hosts fell short. They ended on 286-6, with England winning by 16 runs.

Buttler started steadily but dismantled Australia’s pace attack in the final overs, at one point effortlessly heaving back-to-back sixes off Cummins before following up with consecutive boundaries later in the over.