Australia have set England a target of 299 runs to win the deciding one-day international in Southampton.
The visitors were bowled out two runs shy of 300 following the heroics of Shane Watson with the bat.
Watson was the star of the Aussies' innings as he made a mammoth score of 143 runs before being dismissed by Ben Stokes.
Michael Clarke also stood out for the tourists by reaching 75 when he was caught by Kevin Pietersen off the bowling of debutant Chris Jordan, who finished with two more wickets to his name.
However, Stokes did most of the damage with the ball for the hosts, claiming the wickets of Aaron Finch (26) and Matthew Wade (0) with successive deliveries early on in the match.
He then did his best to clean up the Australian tail as he saw off Adam Voges (8) and Mitchell Johnson (2) to end with figures of 5-61.
