England beats Australia by 1 wicket in 3rd ODI

England finished 214-9 Australia's 21

(GETTY IMAGES)

England beat Australia by one wicket to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the one-day international series.

Tim Bresnan hit the winning runs at Old Trafford with five balls to spare in the third of five one-day matches. It was England's first ODI series win over Australia since 1997.

England finished at 214-9 in reply to Australia's 212 all out.

England was heading for a comfortable win at 184-3 before collapsing to 203-9. Doug Bollinger took 3-20 and Shaun Tait got 3-28 for Australia.

"It was quite horrendous in the last 10 overs," England captain Andrew Strauss said. "We thought we were cruising. It just goes to show that the job's never done."

Strauss hit 87 from 121 balls, including eight fours, and Paul Collingwood made 40 from 61 balls, including one six and one four.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting said his side needed to expose England's tail earlier.

"We were probably a bit late getting through to those guys," Ponting said. "If there is a positive to take, it's that we stuck to our task pretty well, but sitting here now I feel we probably should have won."

Earier Australia faltered from 75-0 to 212 all out.

Graeme Swann took 4-37 and James Anderson 3-22, while opener Shane Watson was Australia's top scorer with 61 from 76 balls, including two sixes and five fours.

Fears that the attendance would be hit by England's World Cup football game with Germany proved unfounded, though the capacity crowd of 22,000 at Old Trafford greeted news of the German goals in silence. Germany won 4-1.

England won the toss for the first time in the series, and Strauss chose to field.

After some initially cautious batting, Australia went after Bresnan and scored 18 from the eighth over.

Every bowler apart from Anderson conceded heavily as Tim Paine and Watson went on the attack, until Michael Yardy was called to bowl the 14th over.

With Australia on 75-0, Yardy trapped Paine lbw for 44 with his third ball and Swann claimed the key wicket of Ponting four overs later.

Ponting had made just 3 when he charged down the wicket to Swann and was stumped by Craig Kieswetter.

Watson reached his 50 from 54 balls, but was softly dismissed by a tame delivery from Swann that he chipped straight to Strauss at square leg.

Cameron White made just 12 when he tried to sweep Swann and fell to an excellent diving catch from Strauss.

Michael Clarke got himself out for 33 in the 39th over when he played a poor shot to Swann and was easily caught at long-off by substitute fielder Ian Bell.

Ten balls later Michael Hussey was bowled by an innocuous off-cutter by Collingwood for 21.

James Hopes was bowled by Anderson with the last ball of the 44th over, playing on to his stumps for 7, and Ryan Harris lasted just two balls before he was caught by Strauss at mid-wicket off Broad for 1 in the very next over.

In the 46th over Anderson had Smith lbw for 20 and the innings came to a premature end when Anderson bowled Bollinger for 3, with 24 balls left.

England's chase got off to a bad start when Kieswetter was bowled first ball by Tait.

However, Strauss and Kevin Pietersen put on 51 for the next wicket, from 51 balls, before Tait caught and bowled Pietersen.

His dismissal occurred just as news filtered through that England had scored in the World Cup and Pietersen ironically walked back to the pavilion to a huge cheer.

"That was a bit odd," said Strauss, who was batting at the time. "The football result was a bit of a downer for everyone, but credit to the crowd who kept supporting us."

Strauss reached his 50 from 68 balls, but Collingwood was then bowled for 40 off the first ball of Bollinger's second spell.

Eoin Morgan lifted the mood when he smashed a ball from Hopes straight back over the bowler's head for a towering six.

Morgan scooped Tait for four behind the 'keeper as he tumbled to his left, but England then nearly threw the game away.

Morgan was caught by Ponting off Steven Smith for 27, Strauss was caught behind off Harris and Luke Wright holed out to Smith and was caught by Hopes.

Bresnan was nearly caught by Clarke off an outside edge and Tait then removed Yardy for 8, caught behind.

Bollinger's last over, the 48th, was a double-wicket maiden. He bowled Swann for one run and then added Broad without scoring, but Bresnan took seven off Harris in the penultimate over to leave England needing three off the final over, with no wickets in hand.

Ponting's decision to hand the ball to Hopes immediately backfired as Bresnan smashed him for four, giving England the victory.