Australia Bat As They Bid To Avoid England Whitewash

Manchester, United Kingdom, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Jun, 2018 ) :Australia captain Tim Paine won the toss and elected to bat in the fifth and final one-day international against England at Old Trafford on Sunday.

England, bidding for their first 5-0 ODI series sweep of arch-rivals Australia, made three changes to the side that won the fourth ODI at Chester-le-Street by six wickets on Thursday.

Fast bowler Craig Overton, who made his ODI debut in that match, was ruled out with soreness in his side as the previously rested Liam Plunkett returned.

For this match, 2019 World Cup hosts England -- the number one-ranked side in this format - rested left-arm quick David Willey and fast bowler Mark Wood, with Surrey seamer Sam Curran given an ODI debut while Nottinghamshire paceman Jake Ball was recalled to the team.

A sunny day and a good-looking pitch appeared to make conditions ideal for batting and England captain Eoin Morgan, speaking at the toss, said: "We would have batted first, given the ground and conditions.

"It looks a really good wicket. Over the years here it has got a little more difficult to chase, but it's a good challenge for us." "We've been working on trying to get more consistency. Hopefully today we can replicate that again," the Irish-born Middlesex batsman explained.

World champions Australia, who have lost 15 of their last 17 completed ODIs, made two changes.

They left out Jhye Richardson, with fellow paceman Kane Richardson returning, while batsman D'Arcy Short was selected after medium-pacer Michael Neser was omitted.

"It looks like a really good one-day wicket," said Paine.

"We prefer to bat first and England prefer to chase.

"The message today is to try and express ourselves. We're learning on the job and we've got one more chance today to put our best foot forward," he added.

England beat Australia 4-0, with one no result washout, in a five-match home ODI series in 2012.

Morgan's men needed 263 on Sunday to surpass their own previous all-time record aggregate runs total for a five-match series of 1,617 set at home to New Zealand in a 3-2 success in 2015.

But the result of the toss meant they could be denied the chance to top that mark if Australia were dismissed for a total of under 262.

Teams England: Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Alex Hales, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (capt), Jos Buttler (wkt), Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Jake Ball Australia: Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Shaun Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, D'Arcy Short, Alex Carey, Tim Paine (capt/wkt), Ashton Agar, Kane Richardson, Billy Stanlake, Nathan Lyon Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena (SRI), Rob Bailey (ENG)tv umpire: Marais Erasmus (SRI)Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SRI)