Australia beat England by 49 runs in a rain-affected game at Bristol to clinch the ODI series 3-2

Captain Mitch Marsh praised the calmness of his injury-hit side and the excellence of stand-in captain Steve Smith as Australia celebrated a victorious, if somewhat soggy and anticlimactic, end to their tour of the United Kingdom.

Marsh, with a sore back, watched impressed on Sunday as Smith coped with his depleted attack excellently and, buoyed by an unlikely and career-best spell from spinner Travis Head, orchestrated the victory over England in Bristol that earned Australia a 3 -2 ODI series wins.

Player of the series Head also scored valuable runs as he chased down Australia and then won the race against bad weather to win by 49 runs in the DLS method.

Head, who started the series with a glorious ton, finished with some surprisingly masterful bowling, taking 4-28 in 6.2 overs, before his quickfire 31, allied to a record half-century from Matt Short, sealed the deal little by little. before the flood came.

Chasing England’s formidable 309, the focus was on whether Australia could score enough in the first 20 overs – the minimum needed to secure a result – to progress in the DLS.

They did just that, racing to 1-103 in the first 10-over powerplay before finishing on 2-165 – perfect timing, as it turned out, with heavy rain starting on cue, just four balls after the 20-over mark.

Smith was 36 not out alongside Josh Inglis (28 not out), as Australia managed to win after three weeks of Tests beset by injury and illness.

The latest was Marsh’s sore back, but former Test captain Smith proved the safest pair of hands as a substitute from the moment he won a big toss and put England in ideal sewing condition.

Still, he had to overcome a headache when England responded with a brutal attack early on, with star spinner Adam Zampa being smashed for six sixes by England captain Harry Brook as Ben Duckett raced to a brilliant hundred.

But by mixing and matching eight different bowlers, Smith’s part-time spinners worked wonders as England slumped from 2-202 just before the halfway point, with 400 an apparent possibility, to 309 in 49.2 overs.

“The way in which, especially Smudge (Smith), and the bowling attack assessed the conditions and were able to get them back, it was a fantastic effort,” Marsh said.

Brook continued his dazzling form with 72 off 52 balls, while Duckett (107 off 91) continued the run after Phil Salt’s manic 27 off 45 balls.

Brook dropped Australia’s supposed mid-innings controller Zampa while targeting Bristol’s short boundaries, scoring him for half a dozen of his seven sixes before finally missing one from the confused leggie.

England then broke up, Head coming to grab the big wicket of Duckett, while Zampa (2-74) had the dangerous Liam Livingstone caught behind for a duck.

England stuttered so much, with Maxwell (2-49) and bowling all-rounder Aaron Hardie (2-38) also impressing, they only got past 300, thanks largely to Adil Rashid’s 36 off 35 balls before becoming Head’s last victim.

“Four for – and death bowling too! I don’t know why Josh Hazlewood is always complaining about bowling at the death,” Head joked afterwards.

“I didn’t come here expecting to pitch twice in the 50th, so it felt really good to get the job done.”

With the bat, he then deposited Will Jacks’ spin for 20 in an over, while Short (58 off 30) was even more destructive, reaching 50 off just 23 balls with a huge fourth six at midwicket – the fastest ODI midwicket. century by an Australian against England, which also featured a maximum that came from the County Ground.

The comedy ensued as the 20-year mark approached, as England appeared to resort to desperation and wasting time, with Matthew Potts making a strategic, and not very subtle, request for a new boot.

“We’ve seen this movie before…” laughed Ricky Ponting in the comments box.

But Australia could not be denied. “It’s certainly been a complicated series (with injuries and illness) – five one-day games in 12 days was always going to be a challenge – but it’s just the calm, our ability to be present with the eleven we fielded, that impressed me,” he said. Marsh. “It’s been a great few weeks.”

AAP