Commentator: Alan Gardner
Okay, folks, that's yer lot for today. Brydon Coverdale's report should be your next stop and then Plays of the Day, why not? If you're in England, Sunday is your oyster; those in the Antipodes should slug a green grenade and then get to bed - remember you've got work tomorrow. To each and everyone in between, thanks for your comments, we'll be back again next week. Cheerio!
10.05pm: Another day, another win for Australia, the taste of defeat growing wearyingly familiar for England. Defending a middling target, they had to take early wickets but practically threw away the game along with several chances in the first 15 overs. Aaron Finch cruised to a century and that was plenty for Australia... and he is duly named Man of the Match.
"It's always nice to get a good start to the series, especially at your home ground," Finch says. "It was a good feeling. The way the wicket was, it swung around a bit early, a game of one-day cricket, you do need a bit of luck early, it was nice that it went our way and to contribute to a big partnership with Davey Warner. When you're batting with him it gives you confidence to give it a bit of a belt. He takes a lot of pressure off, the confidence he brings in from Test cricket, I've known him for about 15 years and it never gets boring."
England's captain, Alastair Cook: "I'm disappointed, we were probably about 20 short but we didn't bowl well enough. We wanted to keep it tight, hit the top of off, but we needed to take those chances. The batsmen wanted to get in - Finch and Warner did that - you can't just go off and running straight away but whenever we managed to build a partnership we had a setback. We've got to [manage the squad] this way, we've got a lot of one-day cricket to come and it was pleasing to see Chris Jordan come off. If things come together on the day we can be competitive at the Gabba."
Australia captain, Michael Clarke: "We were a bit sloppy in the field but did enough. I think the momentum has come from putting in the hard work, we played well in the UK and things are coming together. We've got a lot of guys who can bat and bowl, which makes my job a lot easier, in one-day cricket you need to do two things these days. We're just looking from series to series at the moment but we know the World Cup is coming along."
"Time to bring out the Undertaker," murmurs Matt
Aaron Finch's 121 against England in Melbourne has secured his place in the ODI side for the foreseeable future
ESPNcricinfo presents the plays of the day from the first one-day international between Australia and England
Aaron Finch is becoming Australia's post-Ashes specialist. In Southampton he made a record T20international score of 156 and here became the first Victorian to score an ODI century at the MCG
Alastair Cook called the decision to reprieve David Warner from a caught behind decision "wrong" after England began the one-day series with a heavy defeat at the MCG
Alastair Cook, England's Test and one-day captain, refused to comment on Kevin Pietersen's international future during a cagey press conference ahead of the first ODI
