Mitch Marsh digs deep to salvage pride for Australia, and the No.1 ranking
England rue shocking display in the field as Adil Rashid's brilliance goes under-rewarded
England rue shocking display in the field as Adil Rashid's brilliance goes under-rewarded
Scorer: Chandan Duorah | Commentator: Alan Gardner
9.45pm: From rapt to wrapped, that's the T20Is done with in England's summer of Covid. Three more ODIs to come, of course, starting on Friday. But for now, from myself, Al and our scorer Chandan, it's cheerio. Thanks as always for your comments. Bye!
9.35pm: Time for the presentations, starting with Man of the Match Mitchell Marsh: "Rapt, six months is a long time without playing cricket, nice to get opportunity and contribute today. Practice set us up well, outplayed in the first two but nice to finish off the series. [Comeback?] Like it to be a bit easier, but it was crunch time, got a bit of luck, just tried to capitalise. Grown up on the WACA, I do like pace on. We've got a great squad, we're all working well together, just focused on coming in and doing my job for the team."
Australia captain Aaron Finch: "We know where we messed up in first game, we know where we could improve. We played good cricket but couldn't finish it off, but tonight Mitch and Ashton got us over the line. Always areas to improve, middle overs against spin, knocking it around with the field back. Thought we played some good cricket throughout, nice when you keep it close when not at your best but disappointed to lose series. Looking for combinations and structuring the team, just about guys taking opportunities and doing well. Been a great learning curve after a long lay-off. [ODIs?] Great rivalry, looking forward to getting back into it, area s we can improve and look to change around, Luxury of being 2-3 years out from WC, time to plan it out, get to where you want to be. T20 we're a bit more settled."
England captain Moeen Ali: "Very proud moment when Morgy told me, it was an amazing experience. Sadly we didn't win but showed good fight. Thought it was a slow start, wicket wasn't easy and we played a lot of dot balls in the middle, which is a bit unlike us. Would have been nice to have 15 more runs. Poor in the field, take those chances and we would have won. Generally we weren't great in the field and didn't back up the bowlers. [Buttler Man of Series] World class player, great leader in the side. He's changed our way of playing, brings so much to the team, his experience in the changing room is amazing."
9.25pm: Mitchell Marsh finishes the job, which is not necessarily a phrase you expected to hear coming into the series. Australia did well to recover from that spell when Adil Rashid claimed three wickets in 11 balls, at 100 for 5 you could easily see them throwing away another winning position. It was a borderline farcical finish, but Australia got it done eventually, aided and abetted by England in the field - Marsh, remember, could have been caught twice in his first seven balls. It's always going to be tough defending 145 in T20, but even more so if you aren't completely on it
Here's Matt Roller with the view from the ground: Quite fitting for that to end with a throw that went wide - blaming fielding for a loss is the oldest trick in the book to mask poor performances elsewhere but England were really shoddy tonight
"Super over, anyone?" gurgles Joynul
Okaaay, so no Archer to finish. Jordan continues, one run needed
"England should have stuck with spin." Another over from Moeen could have been interesting, Rich
England batsman also given call-up to the ODI squad following his good run in the T20Is
Despite the No. 1 ranking, it was the area of uncertainty heading into the England series and remains that way
He owed his opportunity to a number of absentees, but it's a notable honour nonetheless for allrounder
England rue shocking display in the field as Adil Rashid's brilliance goes under-rewarded
England will usurp their rivals at the top of the pile if they can complete 3-0 clean sweep