Australia bowlers tried hard to defend a paltry total posted by their batsman, but couldn’t stop the team from succumbing to a series whitewash that was already on the cards. Moeen Ali’s bowling prowess followed by Jos Buttler’s match-defining century steered the hosts to a nail-biting one-wicket victory.

Batting first, Australia were off to a flying start and were looking good to set a challenging target for England. However, Moeen struck twice in the seventh over to remove Aaron Finch and Marcus Stoinis after the Kangaroos reached 60 runs.

Travis Head, however, kept fighting and notched a half-century before Liam Plunkett got him out. Moeen then sent Shaun Marsh back to the hut to put the hapless team in more trouble.

After Aussie skipper Tim Paine became the fifth batter to return to the pavilion following a run out, Australia rode on a 59-run partnership between Alex Carey and D’Arcy Short in a bid to reach a decent total.

Carey became Sam Curran’s maiden scalp in ODIs after clubbing 44 runs. Curran had later dismissed Ashton Agar for a duck. Australia suffered another run out that saw Kane Richardson leaving the crease before Adil Rashid trapped Nathan Lyon lbw.

Moeen wrapped up the Aussie innings by bowling out Billy Stanlake while Short remained not out on 44. The Kangaroos had 205 runs on the scoreboard and the England team – which registered 300+ scores in each of the last three ODIs, including a record-breaking 481-run innings – were just a few steps away from becoming the only second side after South Africa to whitewash Australia in a five-match series.

However, the Australia bowling attack was determined to not give up without a fight and ripped apart the opponents’ batting line-up by taking eight of their wickets for just 114 runs. The lower-order batsmen, who didn’t have much workload in the last three matches during England’s batting, were put to the test this time and didn’t quite meet the expectations.

After Agar removed Jason Roy, the Aussie bowlers teamed up well and didn’t let the opponents have a chance to recover until Buttler and Rashid stitched a 81-run 9^th-wicket partnership.

Richardson and Stanlake bagged three wickets each while Stoinis scalped two, including the wicket of Rashid, which raised the tension at the Old Trafford as England were eleven runs away from the target with a wicket in hand. Buttler didn’t let his heroics fade away with a last-moment mishap and belted a century while also carrying the team past the finishing line.

Buttler, the lone-warrior, outclassed all the opponent bowlers and ended up registering an unbeaten 110-run knock, the highest in a winning cause while none of his teammates managed to go past 20 runs.

This is the fifth time that Australia have been whitewashed in England and what was supposed to be a dress rehearsal for the Australian side ahead of the upcoming World Cup on the English soil has certainly turned into a tale of miseries for the Paine-led men. They have lost nine out of the ten ODIs against England this year and will now face the clinical opponents in a one-off T20I on June 27.