England continued their winning form in the ongoing five-match home ODI series against Australia as they comfortably beat again the Australian team in the fourth ODI at Chester-le-Street on Thursday night. While Australia managed to score 310/8 in 50 overs, England chased down the target in 44.4 overs after losing four wickets (314/4).
Australian captain Tim Paine won the toss and decided to bat first. Australian top-order batsmen performed superbly that secured a good total on the board. Opener Aaron Finch and the no.3 batsman Shaun Marsh scored centuries while another opener Travis Head played a 63-run knock. Finch scored 100 off 106 balls with 6 fours and 3 sixes while Marsh scored 101 runs off 92 balls with 5 fours and 4 sixes.
Australia had an opening partnership of 101 runs (Finch and head) while their second wicket partnership was 124 runs (Finch and Marsh).
However, the middle-order batsmen failed badly as only Ashton Agar (19 runs) reached the double-digit mark. The poor batting response at the end restricted Australia to 310/8.
Among the English bowlers, David Willey (4/43) picked up four wickets while Mark wood (2/49) and Adil Rashid (2/73) got two wickets each.
In reply, England made another great start as their openers Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow put an important 174-run partnership. Roy played a furious knock of 101 runs off just 83 balls with 12 fours and 2 sixes while Bairstow scored 79 runs off 66 balls with 10 fours.
While both the openers departed in quick succession, next batsmen provided enough support to reach the target. No.3 batsman Alex Hales was not out on 34 runs while Joe Root and skipper Eoin Morgan scored 27 and 15 runs respectively. No.6 wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler played another furious knock of unbeaten 54 runs off just 29 balls with 9 fours and only six and that sealed the game for the hosts as England won by six wickets with 32 balls to spare.
Among the Australian bowlers, Ashton Agar (2/48) got two wickets while Billy Stanlake (1/54) and Nathan Lyon (1/38) claimed one wicket each.
While England already secured the ODI series after the end of the third ODI, now they are leading the series by 4-0 and heading towards the whitewash.
