Nottingham, September 16: Australian captain Ricky Ponting struck a master-class hundred to lead his team to a 4-wicket victory, in the process piling on further misery on England.
Ponting smashed a rapid 126 from just 109 balls as the World Champions easily overhauled their target of 300 with 10 deliveries to spare at Trent Bridge.
Courtesy the victory, Australia now lead the 7 match NatWest ODI series 5-0.
Though Australia may have had the last laugh, it was England that seemed to have initially hit the ground running.
After Andrew Strauss won the toss and elected to bat, several batsmen made solid contributions as England put on their best batting display of the series before being bowled out for 299 runs from their allotted quota of 50 overs.
Number six Eoin Morgan struck 58 from 41 balls, including three sixes, while opener Joe Denly contributed with 45 runs. However, none of the English batsmen could capitalize and score a hundred.
Australia started their chase reasonably well but their win was set up by a well-paced third-wicket partnership of 133 between man of the match Ponting and his deputy Michael Clarke (52), who led the team in the first three matches of the series while the skipper rested at home in Australia.
The duo joined forces when Australian reply seemed a bit edgy at 76/2 after 15 overs, but almost 20 overs later when Clarke fell, the visitors had already been set on course for a comfortable victory.
Meanwhile, Ponting`s 27th century in his 317th one-dayer was the highlight of the match. The first of his three sixes, off Sidebottom in the 12th over, went into the third tier of the stand behind the bowler`s arm at the Radcliffe Road End.
His other sixes came in consecutive balls off leg-spinner Adil Rashid.
Ponting was eventually caught on the long-off boundary off Stuart Broad, Cameron White and Mitchell Johnson saw Australia home, the latter clinching victory with a six over long-on from a full toss by seamer Ryan Sidebottom.
Australia will now target a clean sweep in the sixth and seventh games in Nottingham on Thursday and in Durham on Sunday.
—Agencies