England 196 (Woakes 78, Cummins 4-24, Tye 3-33, Hazlewood 3-39) v Australia
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Australia's new-ball pair of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood filleted England's top-order before Chris Woakes' doughty rearguard gave the hosts something to chase on a grassy pitch in the Australia Day ODI at Adelaide Oval.
A slimmer-than-expected crowd seemed destined to be filing out of the exits early when Cummins and Hazlewood combined to have Eoin Morgan's side a sickly 5 for 8 as the new ball swung and seamed, before Woakes delivered his latest outstanding display in a series that England have already won.
He was helped by Australia's captain Steve Smith, who chose to use his supporting bowlers and spell his main strikers when the ball was still newish, but the recalled AJ Tye enjoyed the chance to claim his first three international wickets in his third appearance. David Warner and Travis Head, who returns to the opening berth in the place of the injured Aaron Finch, will now hope they can reprise this fixture a year ago, when they added a world record 284 against Pakistan.
Damp and humid weather in Adelaide encouraged Smith to bowl first upon winning the toss, even though the hosts rested Mitchell Starc after he played in the first three matches. Tye came into the team instead. England lost Liam Plunkett due to a hamstring injury in the third match in Sydney, with Curran called in.
Adelaide Oval's pitch has become known for its even grass coverage and the prospect of some assistance for bowlers as well as batsmen, but the surface combined with the weather made conditions decidedly awkward for batsmen early on - akin more to the early overs of a Test match than the first innings of a 50-over affair. Combined with England's hyper-aggressive attitude to the early overs of an ODI innings, the result was a truly rare rush of early wickets.
Second ball of the match Jason Roy sliced an airy drive at Hazlewood and was pouched in the gully by Smith, then in the fourth over Cummins found sharp seam movement to bowl Alex Hales off his pads. At the other end Jonny Bairstow drove eagerly at Hazlewood and edged through to Tim Paine, and in the next over Joe Root's hook shot flew with some precision into the hands of fine leg.
When Jos Buttler was out to one of the balls of the summer, a Hazlewood seamer that pitched on the off stump before prancing away and gifting Paine another catch, England had lost four wickets in as many overs and were 5 for 8. Only once in ODI history, when Canada were 5 for 7 against the Netherlands in 2013, had the fifth wicket fallen at a lower score, and an exceptionally quick finish seemed in the offing.
However the conditions eased slightly as the ball lost some shine, and Smith seemed content to conserve his bowlers rather than going for the kill. The resultant breathing room allowed Morgan and Moeen Ali to raise a 50 stand, before the return of Cummins and an excellent short ball had Morgan gloving down the leg side. Moeen's innings ended when he hooked Tye straight at Head, centimetres inside the midwicket boundary on the members side, and Adil Rashid soon feathered Cummins' fourth wicket.
Woakes, though, played another excellent innings, in vastly different circumstances to the first three matches, working the ball around and then hitting out powerfully when the bowlers strayed into his scoring zones. Curran offered typically determined support, with the occasional flourish such as one terrific pull shot in Hazlewood's final over. While Woakes fell short of a century, he and the rest of England's bowlers now have a chance to challenge Australia on a pitch still amenable to the new ball.