England crushes struggling Australia in fourth ODI
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England has strolled to a comfortable six-wicket victory over Australia to open up a 4-0 series lead at Durham's Riverside ground.
Centuries from Shaun Marsh and Aaron Finch helped Australia reach 8-310 after 50 overs — their highest score of a difficult tour — after Tim Paine won the toss and elected to bat.
But England's red-hot batsmen made relatively easy work of reaching their target to seal the win with 32 balls to spare on a sunny day in the north-east of the country.
External Link: England cricket tweet: A fitting way to rbing up and incredible 100 JasonRoy20!
Finch, restored to the top of the order scored 100 — his sixth ton against England — with Marsh hitting his second century of the series.
The Victorian, who was dropped early in his innings on 8 after Alex Hales grassed a hugely difficult chance at shot mid-wicket, reached three figures off 105 balls.
Finch and Travis Head had a century-stand for the first wicket with the South Australian chipping in with 62 in a much-improved batting performance from the top order.
Marsh smashed 21 from an Adil Rashid over, but that was as good as it got for the tourists, who could only add 83 runs from the final 10 overs.
A middle order collapse prevented the tourists from posting a mammoth total against a big-hitting England batting line-up.
Mark Wood, who ended the innings of Finch, struck again two balls later when he bowled Marcus Stoinis for 2 to reduce the tourists to 3-227.
Ashton Agar made 18 with Alex Carey (6) failing to make a big impression on his recall to the side when he tried to hit Willey out of the ground and Craig Overton took a smart catch in the deep.
Marsh brought up his ton with a huge six off Rashid before departing to a brilliant relay catch between Jason Roy and Overton.
External Link: England cricket tweet: OH MY WORD WHAT A CATCH!
Marsh looked well set for a fifth six of his innings only for Roy to flick the ball back into the hands of Overton.
Paine (3) and Neser (2) also fell to Willey, who finished with figures of 4-43.
Roy (101) and Jonny Bairstow (79) put on 174 for the opening wicket and despite the loss of Joe Root (27) and Eoin Morgan (15) off the bowling of Agar.
But Jos Buttler came to the crease and smashed 50 from 29 balls with Alex Hales unbeaten on 34 to hand England a ninth victory over Australia in 10 matches.
Paine frustrated after latest defeat
Australia skipper Tim Paine admitted his side missed out on a great chance to beat England after failing to build on a superb start with the bat.
"We were probably 30 or 40 short. Shaun and Aaron batted really well but we didn't quite finish off," Paine said.
"I thought we were in the game for a patch, didn't quite execute up front and Jonny and Jason jumped all over it.
"We came here with an inexperienced side and while it's not an excuse, we're up against the best side in the world and they're red hot at the moment.
"We've got to keep learning and take things out of the game, this will hold them in good stead."
The sides meet for the final match of the one-day series in Manchester on Sunday night (AEST).
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