Carey, Maxwell lift Australia to dramatic win over England
Superb centuries from Alex Carey and Glenn Maxwell inspired Australia to a dramatic three-wicket victory over England about Wednesday as the touring side clinched the one-day international series 2-1.
The pair placed on 212 runs for the sixth wicket after Australia had slumped to 73-5 chasing a stiff target of 303 runs in the final game of the series.
Jonny Bairstow scored 112 as England recovered from losing their primary two wickets to the opening two balls of the overall game to score 302 for seven within their 50 overs after winning the toss.
Australia lost their primary five wickets cheaply but fought rear brilliantly to win with two balls to extra against the world champions and inflict their initial home one-evening series defeat for five years.
England got off to the worst possible begin as Jason Roy drove a thick outside border to backward level and Joe Root was trapped lbw by Mitchell Starc off the first two balls of the innings.
Bairstow go about engineering a restoration, nevertheless, and England quickly pushed the run rate above six an above.
A 114-run partnership for the fifth wicket between Bairstow and Sam Billings (54) provided the backbone of the innings and Chris Woakes also contributed an instant half century to have England at night 300-run mark.
Woakes then took the first two wickets of the Australia innings before Root, with his part-time off spin, nicked out David Warner and Mitchell Marsh cheaply to remove the tourists' top order.
When Marnus Labuschagne was go out in the 17th above, Australia were reeling in 73-5.
Carey and Maxwell fought back again, however, dragging Australia back into the meet with lusty hitting and leaving them needing 21 runs off the previous 18 balls for victory.
They looked like throwing a winning position away when Maxwell top-edged spinner Adil Rashid and was caught by Tom Curran for 108 off 90 balls and 10 balls later Carey was caught by Mark Wood at third man off Jofra Archer for 106.
Australia needed 10 runs off the ultimate over which England captain Eoin Morgan bravely entrusted to Rashid. Starc smacked a six off his primary ball and struck another boundary to get the game, taking a crowded summer of international cricket to an exciting conclusion.
England had a busy three-month window into that they crammed six tests and 12 limited-overs internationals - all played nowadays in a bio-secure bubble because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
