Australia survive late scare to clinch consolation victory over England that keeps them top of T20 rankings

Australia beat England to retain their No1 ranking in T20 internationals – but not without a slight fright from the familiar figure of Adil Rashid, who caused a scare in a small chase.

When Rashid took three big wickets in 11 balls, England suddenly looked in a game they had no right to be in, but Mitch Marsh – who made 40 from 36 balls – came to Australia’s rescue on his first appearance of the series. He helped them chase just 146 with five wickets and three balls to spare.

The No1 ranking was on the line in the final match of a series England won on Sunday, but the two sides were much changed. England’s batting line-up, without Jos Buttler and Eoin Morgan, let alone Ben Stokes and Jason Roy, had a makeshift look to it.

Moeen Ali was captain for the first time, and perhaps only he and Jonny Bairstow were first-choice players in the top six as they were asked to bat first.

And it stumbled along, held together by Bairstow, who initially struggled to time the ball before landing some lusty blows to the spinners, including a six that took him past fifty. In the following over, off Ashton Agar, he went for a fourth six but could only send the ball skyward and the bowler ran 30 yards to take a decent catch. Bairstow departed with 55 hard-fought runs from 44 balls, which was a fine effort having had nine off 16.

Bairstow had seen the other members of England’s top four come and go. Tom Banton, caught behind heaving the excellent Josh Hazlewood, and Sam Billings, reverse-sweeping Adam Zampa to slip, barely made an impression.

But Dawid Malan chipped in with 23 from 18 before being superbly caught in the deep trying to take on Zampa’s first ball. He at least recognised that spin needed to be taken down given England’s difficulties against seam on this thrice used pitch.

Moeen played a couple of nice strokes before holing out to the exceptional Mitchell Starc (Steve Smith’s catch was taken right on the fence), leaving Joe Denly – batting out of position at No6 – to shoulder the final few overs.

Bairstow had been replaced at the crease by Denly, who raced along at a strike-rate of 150, plenty more than anyone else. But Denly did not do so from the middle of the bat, taking three successive boundaries off Kane Richardson, while he was also hit cleanly on the head by Starc. But England were grateful for his 28 carrying them to 145.

The first over of Australia’s chase went for 16, with six of those runs coming from a huge Matthew Wade six off Jofra Archer. Wade, who had replaced the rested David Warner at the top of the order, fell in the next over to Mark Wood, but Australia kept their foot on the gas. As Marcus Stoinis joined Aaron Finch in teeing off to crunch 61 from the powerplay, all those problems England had timing the ball in the powerplay seemed a distant memory.

England were left to rue some poor fielding, with Banton and Denly allowing boundaries to fizz through them, then Bairstow – keeping in Buttler’s place – shelling a skied Finch chance off Rashid that could barely have been simpler. Later, Malan missed Marsh twice at slip off the legspin of Denly then Rashid.

Even with the missed chances, Rashid spun England back into the game. After Tom Curran had Stoinis caught in the deep first ball, Rashid attacked with his googly. Glenn Maxwell got it all wrong switch-hitting and was caught at backward-point, then Finch was bowled through the gate. The following over, Steve Smith got a leading edge back to Rashid – who did not miss the chance as others had. In every game this series, Rashid has taken a wicket with his final ball of the night. His figures for the series were six wickets for just 75 runs.

With Rashid finished, Marsh made hay against pace. He took Wood’s final over for 14, to leave Australia needing just 20 from the final four overs. With the help of Ashton Agar, Marsh averted the crisis Australia had been unable to avoid in the opening game of the series. He sealed the win with a tight single after two successive dot balls. On to Friday's ODIs.