England v Australia: Brook century keeps ODI series alive

Harry Brook played a much-needed captain’s knock in a rain-affected third ODI between England and Australia in Durham, guiding his team to victory on Wednesday (AEST) to keep the series alive.

The English skipper scored 110 runs from 94 balls at the Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street, taking the hosts through to 4/254 before rain suspended play and England won by 46 runs via the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern (DLS) method.

Earlier, Australia had posted 7/304 in challenging batting conditions.

Wicketkeeper Alex Carey was again the anchor of the Aussie effort, backing up his score of 74 runs in the second ODI with an unbeaten 77.

Steve Smith also bagged a half-century, with the veteran making 60 from 82 balls.

It was a strong finish to the innings for Australia, who scored slowly early on.

Having been at 226/6 after 42 overs, Glenn Maxwell (30 from 25) and Aaron Hardie (44 from 26) combined with Carey in a late flurry to take them past 300.

“Thought we did extremely well to get to 300, particularly with conditions early on,” Aussie captain Mitchell Marsh said after the game.

“I thought 250 after that start would be awesome and we were well and truly in the game.”

England started poorly in their chase, with both openers knocked over for single figures to leave the home side at 2/11 after three overs.

However, Will Jacks and Brook then put on 156 runs for the third wicket, with Jacks making 84 from 82 balls.

Liam Livingstone joined after Jamie Smith fell cheaply, pairing with Brook to power England well ahead of the DLS asking rate.

“England too good with the bat,” Marsh said.

“They got a really good partnership going. Fair play to them.”

Brook explained that there was some relief in scoring his first white-ball century for England.

“Nice to get the first hundred on the board, hopefully there’s plenty more to come,” he said.

“With the bat, me and ‘Jacksy’ just tried to stay out there as long as possible and create that partnership.

“Definitely thought the pitch got better towards the end of Australia’s innings and it was a simple message of go out and play your own game.

“Thankfully it came off today.”

England are still heavy underdogs to win the five-match ODI series against Australia, with bookmaker BetOnline putting them at +333 to Australia’s -454.55.

Their odds for the fourth ODI are stronger, however, with most cricket betting sites paying +120 for England to win and level the series at 2-2 at Lord’s on Friday.

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