Brett Lee’s 5-49 reduced England to 220 all out and Australia cruised to a seven wicket victory at Lord’s on Saturday to take an unassailable 4-0 victory in the ODI series.
Michael Clarke hit an unbeaten 62, Tim Paine 51 and Ricky Ponting 48 to ease Australia to a winning score of 221 for three with 6.2 overs to spare. With the series now decided, Australia has the chance for a 7-0 overall triumph to take away some of the hurt of losing the Ashes Tests.
Already 3-0 up with four matches to go, the Australians, who removed the last five England wickets off 21 balls, hit back strongly after England raced to 96-1 inside the first 19 overs and captain Andrew Strauss gave the home side a solid platform with 63.
The Australians slowed the scoring rate with spinner Nathan Hauritz taking 2-23 off 10 overs although Lee, bowling some devastating yorkers, was the big star as the tourists won the series three games early. The teams meet twice at Trent Bridge and finally at the Riverside on September 20.
Recalling batsman Joe Denly, paceman Stuart Broad and leg-spinner Adil Rashid, England got off to a quick start after Strauss won the toss for the fourth time in a row and opted to bat first. The openers raced to 28 off the first four overs before Denly edged a ball from Lee to first slip Cameron White and departed for 11.
Hitting Nathan Bracken for three fours in one over, Strauss attacked the Australian bowlers from the start and pulled Shane Watson for his eighth boundary to reach his 18th ODI 50 off 55 balls.
Ravi Bopara tried to sweep and was out lbw to Hauritz for 26 and Strauss was next to go, lofting a catch to Bracken to hand the spinner his second wicket.
Matthew Prior helped Owais Shah move the score steadily on to 146. But Australia captain Ponting, playing his first match of the series after a trip home, brought back Lee and the paceman struck with his first ball, yorking Prior for 29.
Lee went on to complete a wicket maiden in the 33rd over and England’s slow scoring rate continued deep into the innings.
Eoin Morgan was expertly stumped by Paine off Bracken for 13 and England was 174-5 with 10.3 overs to go.
Lee’s yorkers dismissed Luke Wright for 12 and Broad for two in the same over and Shah then pulled a full toss from Watson to Callum Ferguson and was out for 39. Lee removed Rashid for four with another yorker to leave England on 212-9 and Mitchell Johnson ended the innings midway through the 47th over by bowling Ryan Sidebottom for two.
Chasing a modest target, Watson hit four boundaries and he and Paine raced to 51 by the 10th over before Tim Bresnan trapped Watson leg before for 26.
Returning after he missed the first three matches because of a trip home, Ponting helped Paine maintain the fast scoring rate and Australia reached 100 in the 17th over.
Paine reached his first one-day international half-century with two off Rashid before the leg-spinner dismissed him in the same over, the opener top edging to wicketkeeper Prior and departing for 51.
But Australia reached the halfway total with only 20 overs gone and Ponting and Clarke, who was captain in his absence, continued to punish an England bowling attack, which never had enough runs to defend.
Ponting was out two short of his half-century when he lofted a catch to Bopara at cover to give Bresnan his second wicket.
Clarke reached his 50 with a well-placed cover drive off Rashid for his sixth 4 and he and Ferguson, who finished 23 not out, moved smoothly to the victory total with 38 balls to spare.
