Ponting Century Puts Australia 5-0 Up At Trent Bridge

Ponting Century Puts Australia 5-0 Up At Trent Bridge

Ponting hits out during his century.

©REUTERS/Philip Brown (BRITAIN SPORT CRICKET) Picture Supplied by Action Images

Ponting Century Puts Australia 5-0 Up At Trent Bridge

Andrew Strauss (left) is dismissed leg before wicket.

©Action Images / Matthew Childs Livepic

Australia 302-6 (Ponting 126, Clarke 52) beat
England 299 (Morgan 58, Hauritz 2-54) by four wickets
Scorecard
Fifth One-Day International, Trent Bridge

A majestic century from captain Ricky Ponting gave Australia the platform to beat England by four wickets in a high-scoring One-Day International at Trent Bridge.

A string of England batsmen got themselves in and then got themselves out before Eoin Morgan's stroke-filled half-century got them to the brink of 300 batting first but Ponting's 126, allied with vice-captain Michael Clarke's 52, ensured they got to 302 to win in the penultimate over to go 5-0 up in the series.

Morgan faced just 41 balls, hitting four fours and three sixes and played the starring role as England blasted 45 runs during the third Power Play, the first time they appeared to have used it correctly in the series.

Andrew Strauss (35), Joe Denly (45), Ravi Bopara (18), Matthew Prior (37) and Owais Shah (31) all made starts but failed to go on and it needed some late hitting from Dimitri Mascarenhas (19), Stuart Broad (22) and Adil Rashid (18) to get England to 299 all out on what was a belter of a pitch in Nottingham.

Mitchell Johnson, Shane Watson and Nathan Hauritz grabbed two wickets apiece, Hauritz the least expensive of the trio with 54 runs beside his name.

In reply, Tim Bresnan was again the pick of the bowlers early on, dismissing both Shane Watson (36) and Tim Paine (16) before Ponting and Clarke put on 133 for the third wicket, Ponting doing exactly what England hadn't by making the best of his start, facing 109 balls in all, hitting 14 fours and three sixes.

Although Clarke was dismissed by Adil Rashid and Mike Hussey again fell cheaply for six, Australia always appeared to be in control with Ponting at the crease.

Broad looked to have engineered an English comeback when he had Ponting and Callum Ferguson (17) dismissed in the 44th over, but it was not to be for the home side, who had to watch as Cameron White, unbeaten on 24 and Johnson, who made 18 in just 12 balls, carried their team home with ten balls to spare, Johnson winning the match in emphatic style by hitting Ryan Sidebottom for six.

© Cricket World 2009

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