Nottingham: England posted the highest total ever scored in a men’s one-day international of 481 for six as they thrashed Australia by 242 runs at Trent Bridge on Tuesday to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in a five-match series.
Alex Hales (147) and Jonny Bairstow (139) both hit hundreds as, for the second time in two years at Trent Bridge, England posted a new record ODI score following their 444 for three against Pakistan at Nottinghamshire’s headquarters in 2016.
This was Australia’s heaviest defeat at this level, in terms of runs, surpassing a 206-run loss to New Zealand in Adelaide in 1986.
By contrast, England were able to enjoy their biggest victory in the format as they topped their previous ODI best — 210-run success against New Zealand at Edgbaston in 2015.
The 62 boundaries England struck in their innings was also a new record at this level, surpassing the 59 managed by Sri Lanka against the Netherlands, a non-Test nation, in Amstelveen, 12 years ago.
Faced with a massive target of 482, Australia — missing star batsmen Steve Smith and David Warner, both given year-long bans for their roles in March’s ball-tampering scandal in Cape Town — slumped to 239 all out with 13 overs left in the match.
England spinners Adil Rashid (four for 47) and Moeen Ali (three for 28), with a mountain of runs behind them, shared seven wickets.
Bairstow’s hundred was his fourth in six ODIs while Hales’s century on his Nottinghamshire home ground ended a run of low scores.
Meanwhile England captain Eoin Morgan became the country’s all-time leading run-scorer in this format during a 67 that featured 21-ball fifty — England’s quickest in men’s ODIs.
“It was amazing,” Bairstow told Sky Sports during the mid-innings break. “This ground is a special ground for us. It always tends to bring something exciting — what a pitch it is.”
Hales added: “We’ve had some great memories here as a team and today is another special day.
“The 500 was murmured when Morg (Morgan) came out but we just couldn’t get there,” he added
Jason Roy, who made 120 in England’s 38-run win in the second ODI in Cardiff on Sunday, could have had back-to-back hundreds but instead ran himself out on 82.
England might even have scored 500 had not Hales and Morgan — returning after being ruled out in Cardiff with a back spasm — been dismissed off successive deliveries to leave them 459 for five off 47.3 overs.
Australia captain Tim Paine used eight bowlers before the 25th over, having sent England into bat.
But an attack missing injured Ashes-winning fast bowlers Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, struggled for line and length in overcast conditions on a ground favouring swing bowling, with medium-pacer Andrew Tye’s nine wicketless overs costing 100 runs.
Left-arm spinner Ashton Agar thought he had Bairstow lbw for 27 when he missed a sweep but the batsman’s review showed the ball, surprisingly, missing leg stump.
Bairstow, on 30, skyed a drive off Tye but Marcus Stoinis failed to hold an extremely tough chance as he ran back from mid-on.
Australia, however, were gifted a wicket when Roy ran himself out going for a needless second run.
But Hales was quickly into his stride with three fours in four balls off medium-pacer Stoinis.
It was off Australia’s eighth bowler, left-arm wrist spinner D’Arcy Short, that Bairstow hit a huge six over deep midwicket to reach a 69-ball hundred including 11 fours and four sixes.
Bairstow eventually hammered Agar to Richardson at deep midwicket.
Hales — who also faced 92 balls — was caught in the deep off Richardson, having hit 16 fours and five sixes on a ground where he made 171 in an ODI against Pakistan two years ago.
Next ball Morgan, whose tally of 5,443 ODI runs for England in 180 matches has now surpassed Ian Bell’s 5416 in 161 — also holed out.
