Australia 4/230 (48.3 ov, C White 105, M Clarke 52) defeated England 9/228 (50 ov, A Strauss 63, S Watson 3/31) by 6 wkts: ODI #3 at the Rose Bowl Southampton.
Yet another below par batting performance by England against a tenacious Australian attack. Pity there weren't a few more in the Tests!
Andrew Strauss led from the front scoring 63 (72b, 7x4) of the first 98 runs. But he was fourth out. Eoin (how do you pronounce that?) Morgan and, lower down the order, Tim Bresnan and Ryan Sidebottom struck a few blows though no one remained long enough to set Australia a really daunting challenge.
A belligerent 105 (124b,9x4, 1x6) by stand in no3 Cameron White a more measured 52 (92b, 1x4) by stand in captain Michael Clarke saw Australia home comfortably (and predictably).
Why Adil Rashid, who performed well with bat and ball in ODI#1, was left out of the next two matches is beyond me. Now it's the England not, as in the Test series, the Australian, selectors who are under the pump. The only problem for the latter is who to drop to let Ricky Ponting resume the captaincy.
Scorecard
This series has prompted criticism from several people including Patrick Smith in The Australian who described it as "pointless". He makes some reasonable points though I disagree with his conclusion for reasons which I may elaborate upon another time.
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