England beat Australia in the T20 International at Edgbaston
England maintained their dominance over Australia when winning the one-off T20 International at Edgbaston.
Having completed a 5-0 clean sweep in the ODI series at Old Trafford on Sunday, England made a seamless transition to the shortest form of the game by beating the reeling tourists by 28 runs in front of a buoyant Birmingham crowd.
On a beautiful batting wicket and with two desperately short straight boundaries, away captain Aaron Finch was keen to chase and asked England to bat first upon winning the toss.
However, Billy Stanlake's opening over went for 13 and England made relentless progress thereafter as Jos Buttler continued his stellar run of form by registering a 22-ball half-century, the fastest recorded by an England player in T20 internationals.
Buttler was promoted to open the batting having flourished at the top of the order in the IPL earlier in the year and the early signs are that he and Jason Roy could develop a potent partnership, Roy making 44 to go with Buttler's 61 as they pair put on 95 inside nine overs.
Former opener Alex Hales continued to state his case for permanent selection by blasting 49 from 24 balls while Joe Root added 35 from number five as England closed on a daunting 221-5.
In reply, Australia were always up against it having spluttered to 72-5.
However, Finch was in no mood to lie down and kept his side in the game with some remarkable hitting - particularly off Moeen Ali - making 84 from only 41 balls.
But when he became one of three victims for Adil Rashid the game was up for the tourists as Chris Jordan helped himself to three wickets off his own.
Australia managed to reach a very respectable 193 before they were dismissed in the final over but once again, England's limited-overs juggernaut proved too strong.
England captain Eoin Morgan said afterwards: "With the bat we started outstandingly well. Jos and Jason Roy really did get us off to a flyer, expressing themselves and making the most of that new ball and good wicket.
"From there we managed to kick on. Sometimes when you get off to a good start and you're 100 for none or one, sometimes you can fall short of getting 200, but we didn't take the foot off the pedal. We bat quite deep so we stuck to our mantra of coming quite hard.
"When you've somebody like Jonny Bairstow at six and Moeen Ali at seven you can keep coming as hard as you can and it really did pay off today.
"I thought we got 15 or 20 over par and we needed them, Australia played really well and came back hard at us like we thought they would.
"Crucial wickets from the guys throughout the innings cost Australia in the end."
Finch hopes Australia's youngsters have learned from a chastening tour.
He said: "It's been a really good learning curve for a lot of the young guys, especially coming off a little break: we've had four months since the end of the season back home.
"For them to walk straight back in and perform international cricket against the best in the world, you can't come in one per cent off the boil.
"They will learn a lot about their preparation going forward, that you have to hit the ground running and be 100 per cent committed and 100 per cent ready to go when you turn up and play that first game. Otherwise, it's a long road."
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