After a poor display in the Ashes series, England made a great comeback in the ODI format and defeated the mighty Australians in their own backyard. However, another run of disappointments seems to have started for England as they have lost their second consecutive match to Australia in the tri-nation T20I series.

Australia defeated England by 7 wickets in the 3rd clash of the ongoing series on Saturday. Winning the toss in Melbourne, Australia decided to bowl first. England struggled to keep the score ticking on a two-paced track and registered a total of 137 runs for 7 wickets.

After losing three quick wickets following the openers’ exit and Dawid Malan’s run out, stand-in skipper Jos Buttler tried to stand firm and make good partnerships to set a good total.

James Vince and Sam Billings contributed in two partnerships with the captain with their innings of 21 and 29 runs, respectively. Vince was out bowled by Andrew Tye whereas, Stanlake dismissed Billings.

Buttler scored 46 off 49 before getting out by Kane Richardson. The same bowler had dismissed opener Jason Roy on 8 runs and later got the wicket of David Willey on 10 runs.

Australia chased the total with 33 balls remaining. Although David Warner could not manage to score more than 2 runs before Willey bagged his wicket, another opener D’Arcy Short remained unbeaten with his innings of 36 runs.

Glenn Maxwell and Chris Lynn did their job accordingly and posted 39 and 31 runs to the scoreboard, respectively. But it was Aaron Finch’s cameo of 20 runs which made the game more interesting when the hosts were very close to the victory. With two fours and two over-boundaries, Finch needed five balls to seal the match in style.

Kane Richardson was the Man of the Match for scalping 3 crucial wickets at the right time. And with this win, Australia have reached the final before playing their only group match in the second leg of the tournament in New Zealand.