Australia ease past England in third T20 and take top spot as consolation prize

Australia now travel to Old Trafford comforted by their first victory of the tour. Their target of 146 was none too demanding and they won the third T20 against England by five wickets with three balls to spare.

There were a few stutters along the way caused by another excellent spell by Adil Rashid, who conjured three wickets, but Mitchell Marsh and Ashton Agar kept their heads at the end for a victory that returns Australia to the top of the world T20 rankings at England’s expense.

Now everyone is probably ready for a different format at a different venue. Simon Lee, the new groundsman at the Ageas Bowl, his staff and all those behind the scenes that allowed international cricket to function here deserve some gratitude and a rest.

Related: Australia beat England by five wickets in third men's T20 – as it happened

England were without Jos Buttler and Eoin Morgan, whose dislocated finger had not recovered sufficiently. So Sam Billings and Joe Denly came into the side and it might be stretching it a bit to say they were like-for-like replacements, though neither Buttler nor Morgan bowl wrist-spinners as well as Denly. Australia shuffled their pack bringing in Matthew Wade, Josh Hazlewood and Marsh, all of whom added some spark.

Moeen Ali led the England side for the first time as the official captain – though he was in charge earlier in the summer in the field against Ireland, a task that ended in a similar manner to when Andrew Strauss captained against them in Bangalore. Recently Moeen has done this job superbly for Worcestershire. “It’s an honour to captain your country,” he said. “Hopefully I can use what I’ve learned under Morgs.”

Moeen did a good job but even with Morgan in charge England would have struggled to win when defending 145. It was a struggle for England from the start. This was the third game on this pitch and maybe that accounted for the sluggish progress. Moreover Australia with their fast, lanky pacemen to the fore were clearly hellbent on recording their first victory of the tour. Mitchell Starc and Hazlewood allowed no liberties.

Jonny Bairstow top-scored with 55 from 44 balls. In some ways this was an admirable innings since he found it impossible to time the ball throughout the powerplay. But he battled away and just about managed to keep his wicket intact. It would have been easy to give up the ghost. Gradually he found some sporadic fluency, usually against the spinners. One slog sweep against Adam Zampa cleared the longest boundary by 30 yards.

After Tom Banton had edged in Hazlewood’s first over, Dawid Malan was Bairstow’s partner and they managed to add 49 together in seven overs whereupon Malan holed out against Zampa’s first delivery.

Once Bairstow was dismissed, top‑edging a pull against Agar, the chances of a late innings acceleration were greatly diminished. Moeen flickered until deftly caught on the boundary edge by Smith and Denly, using all parts of his bat, delivered a handy, unbeaten 29 from 19 balls. But England’s last two overs produced only nine runs.

Australia’s response started rather more vigorously. Jofra Archer’s first over was fast but it went for 16 runs. The most remarkable shot came from Wade, a pick-up shot that sailed way over square leg; in Archer’s next over a top-edged hook from Aaron Finch flew over the vacant fine-leg boundary.

As ever Wade was bristling with aggression but it did not last. Mark Wood opted for a fuller length than Archer and Wade swung again but this time the ball was only spliced to Chris Jordan at mid-off. However this did not prompt any deceleration. England had mustered 33 for one in their powerplay, Australia cracked 61 for one in theirs.

Moeen introduced Rashid immediately after the powerplay and Finch on 27 tried a slog-sweep. The top edge went straight up into the night sky; Bairstow took responsibility but he could not take the catch. Even so there was still some nervousness in the Australia camp. Marcus Stoinis scooped Tom Curran’s first delivery high and this time Banton held the catch; Glenn Maxwell might have been run out without facing but he now tried two reverse sweeps against Rashid; he missed the first one and top-edged the second.

Then there was a moment of magic from Rashid, who has been exceptional with a white ball this summer. A perfect googly completely flummoxed Finch. He was not finished yet; his last delivery dipped in the air and Smith pushed hard; a reflex catch by Rashid and his spell was over having taken three of 21 from his four overs. Australia had slumped to 100 for five after 13 overs but Marsh and Agar, grateful that Rashid could bowl no more, stood firm.