Ponting century sinks England to make it 5-0

Sports - Cricket - NatWest Series - 5th ODI

Ricky Ponting led his side to a fifth straight victory at Trent Bridge. With his 26th one-day century and a 133-run partnership he shared with Michael Clarke (52), he kept Australia on course for a 7-0 whitewash.

England's captain Andrew Strauss won the toss for the ninth time out of ten this summer and selected to bat first. Every batsmen contributed, with half of them scoring over 30, but once again, the home side were missing a centurian or lasting partnership.

Australia were set a respectable, competitive target of 300 to win, but quickly extinguished any hopes England had to defend it, with superb batting displays and a solid partnership that carried them for nearly half the innings and total.

Run of Play: Advantage to...

England:

47 for 0 after 10 overs: England - Andrew Strauss and Joe Denly provided a solid start, great drives and boundary shots, good cricket all round, but England usually do that but have been unable to build something on it.

98 for 2 after 20 overs: England - AGAIN, a good start but worrying wickets and no long-lasting partnerships. Strauss tried a silly reverse sweep after he hit the previous ball for four and was caught out lbw to Nathan Hauritz - although it did look like the ball tickled his bat. Ravi Bopara served a comfortable catch to Hauritz off Shane Watson, a soft dismissal for just 18 off 21.

149 for 3 after 30 overs: England - Matt Prior and Owais Shah created a nice momentum with the second 50 partnership of the day, fifth this series, but can they press on?

208 for 5 after 40 overs: England - Prior was stumped, a beautiful move by wicket keeper Tim Paine and Shah's fine edge off Mitchell Johnson was caught behind. Any hopes of a big partnership were thereby once again demolished by some foolish and sloppy play. It is once again up to the lower half to create a competitive total.

299 all out after 50 overs: England - Australia capitulated the last couple of overs with overthrows, misses, just clumsiness, giving England extra runs and plenty of boundaries, Eoin Morgan smashing an entertaining half century. Wonderful late entertainment with a bit of everthing, fire, drama, runs, wickets, class and hiccups. At least England got a defendable total out of it, see if they can make the Aussies fight for it for a change.

Australia:

50 for 1 after 10 overs: Australia - Another strong start from the Aussies, Paine the only wicket to fall, caught by Adil Rashid off Tim Bresnan for 16. Stuart Broad and Ryan Sidebottom started off well, but Bresnan made the difference.

107 for 2 after 20 overs: Australia - And captain Ricky Ponting is smashing on, big hits and strokes, fours and sixes. Watson spooned the ball and was caught by Dimitri Mascharenhas at mid-on, out for 36, but Michael Clarke settled in nicely and silenced the crowd.

168 for 2 after 30 overs: Australia - Ponting and Clarke are in the rhythm and charging on, keeping the crowd silent and accumulating runs. A beautiful century partnership, something England have been missing, and Ponting's 27th ODI half century.

230 for 4 after 40 overs: Australia - The Aussie skipper is on a roll blasting to his 26th ODI century. Clarke fell after reaching his half century, caught at deep mid-wicket by Shah, a simple catch to end an exemplary century-partnership of 133 runs.

302 for 6 after 48.2 overs: Australia - England regained a little bit of hope and confidence after the Aussies gave away a couple of wickets, but could not and did not realistically expect to win, especially after the poor fielding, throws-in and missed catches they had shown against a high and shining Australian batting display. Mitchell Johnson and Cameron White saw Australia through, with a smack-boom-bang six off the last ball which summarized the whole night and series.