Australia secure consolation win over England to retain world No.1 spot

Mitchell Marsh hits a match-winning knock to give Australia victory ahead of the one-day international series starting on Friday

The Ageas Bowl: England 145-6 v Australia 146-5 - Australia won by five wickets

Scorecard

Australia took advantage of an error-strewn England display to claim a consolation victory to round off the T20 series at The Ageas Bowl.

Mitchell Marsh struck a match-winning 39 not out to guide the tourists to their target of 146 with three balls to spare.

Jonny Bairstow had earlier hit a half-century, but failures for Tom Banton (2) and Sam Billings (4) meant a much-changed England were restricted to 145 for 6 from their 20 overs.

Adam Zampa took 2-34 while there was success for Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Kane Richardson and Ashton Agar.

At 70-1, Australia once again put themselves in a commanding position and while they lost a string of wickets England couldn't take advantage after a fielding display riddled with mistakes in Moeen Ali's first match as captain.

England claim the 2-1 series win and know with players to return they must rediscover their best form from earlier in the series when the ODIs begin on Friday (September 11).

Both sides made a host of changes with the series already decided, with Jos Buttler and an injured Eoin Morgan missing out for the hosts, while David Warner, Alex Carey, and Pat Cummins were all left out for Australia.

After being stuck in, the new-ball pair of Starc and Hazlewood posed England plenty of problems with the combination of pace and tight lines restricting them to 33 for 1 in the powerplay.

^{Jonny Bairstow's fifty gave England something respectable to defend}

Bairstow endured a slow start before hitting a trio of fours and three sixes on his way to scoring 55 from 44 balls. But the loss of Banton and Billings, as well as a rare failure for Dawid Malan (21) held the home side back.

Moeen (23), and Joe Denly (29*) produced useful knocks in the death overs to give England a defendable total but a failure to score a boundary from the final 14 delivers, most of which were bowled by Richardson and Starc gave Australia the edge at the half-way mark.

Though without Warner, Australia once again got off to an encouraging start with Matthew Wade dispatching Jofra Archer for a huge six early on.

Wade (14) was dismissed by Chris Jordan and though Australia reached a comfortable position they soon suffered a mid-innings collapse. They were from 70 for 1 to 100 for 5, as Adil Rashid's variations caused havoc.

Aaron Finch (39), Glenn Maxwell (6) and Steve Smith (3) all succumbed but thanks to a string of dropped catches England were unable to keep up the pressure, with Dawid Malan and Bairstow the guilty parties.

But unlike in the first T20, Justin Langer's side held their nerve. Marsh steered the team to victory with a career-best score alongside Agar (16), with the pair putting on an unbeaten 46 for the sixth wicket to build momentum ahead of the ODIs.

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