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Cricket

England v Australia 5th ODI Live and Preview

England v Australia 5th ODI Live and Preview

Another stern test awaits Australia as they look to overcome the prospect of an embarrassing whitewash against England.

Another stern test awaits Australia as they look to overcome the prospect of an embarrassing whitewash against England.

The final ODI will be played on Tuesday at Old Trafford with England already having won the series.

The win in the last ODI gave England an unassailable 3-0 lead, with one match washed out. It has been one-way traffic throughout and the hosts will be eager to continue the tide ahead of the Test series against South Africa.

An all-round performance in the fourth ODI kept Australia restricted to 200, with strong bowling showing by Steven Finn who picked up four wickets.

In addition, Tim Bresnan and James Anderson chipped in with two wickets apiece in what has been a fairly successful series for the English seamers.

From a batting perspective as well, the team has done well in the post-Kevin Pietersen era. Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott scored half centuries as England reached the target with ease. Alastair Cook is chasing yet another successful series whitewash after the 4-0 win against Pakistan in UAE.

Australia have been confined to mere walkovers in the series as they have slipped from competitive to poor over the four matches.

It was another soft performance in the previous match as their batting slipped under testing batting conditions. Only Michael Clarke and David Hussey could put up some resistance to bring some respectability to the total.

Hussey scored 70 while Clarke fell for 43. In response, the bowlers had little to play with and their cause was not helped by injuries to Brett Lee and Shane Watson.

The pair bowled less than four overs between them and calf injuries have ruled them both out of the final match. Mitchell Starc, currently doing a reasonable job with Yorkshire, has been called up into the squad for the final ODI as Australia look to pull off a face-saving victory.

The match starts at 2pm local time.