England suffered a classic middle-order batting collapse to fall to a narrow five-run defeat to Australia this morning and lose the one-day series 4-1.
Alastair Cook's side lost six wickets for 55 runs to surrender a promising position and ended up needing eight off the final over, in which last man James Tredwell edged behind to give Australia a dramatic win.
On a slow and difficult batting pitch, the hosts recorded their lowest total of the series as Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes each took three wickets to restrict them to 217-9 off their 50 overs.
George Bailey top scored with 56 for the Aussies, while Glenn Maxwell [22], Matthew Wade [31] and James Faulkner [27] also contributed useful runs in the lower order after the they fell to 64-4.
Ian Bell [14] and Stokes [0] were both caught in the ring in the first 10 overs of England's chase but Cook came together with Joe Root, recalled in place of Gary Ballance, to put on 61 for the third wicket.
Following the dismissal of Cook [39] off Nathan Coulter-Nile, Root and Eoin Morgan [39] added another useful partnership of 64 before falling in quick succession to spark England's demise.
Root's ill-advised ramp shot which brought an end to his knock of 55 heaped the pressure on England's new pair and when in-form wicketkeeper Jos Buttler went for five Australia had evened things up.
Ravi Bopara and Tim Bresnan did appear to be guiding England to victory though, before the latter was ran out, and Broad missed a straight one from Clint McKay as his side were reduced to 204-8.
Bopara was dismissed controversially, adjudged to be stumped off McKay despite the replays being inconclusive, as the tourists again found it to be Australia's day, on Australia Day, in Adelaide.
England's last pair of Chris Jordan and Tredwell were left with nine to win and managed a few singles before Shane Watson found the edge of the off-spinner's bat to secure the hosts a slender victory.
Joe Fish
