England crush Australia after record-breaking ODI total

England made the highest one-day international total in history as they crushed Australia by 242 runs to seal the series at Trent Bridge.

The hosts scored 481-6 in 50 overs – eclipsing their own own record of 444-3, set against Pakistan at the same venue in 2016.

Alex Hales hit 147 and Jonny Bairstow 139 as England briefly threatened to post 500 in the third ODI.

Jason Roy made 82 and skipper Eion Morgan blazed 67 off 30. Australia were bowled out for 239 in 37 overs as Adil Rashid took 4-47.

England’s win, which gave them an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series with two games to play, came only 11 days after New Zealand made the highest total in a women’s ODI – 490-4 against Ireland in Dublin.

While the innings of Hales and Bairstow, which both lasted 92 balls, laid the platform, skipper Morgan provided the late impetus with a rapid half-century.

The left-hander hit a 21-ball half-century – the fastest by an England player – in becoming his country’s all-time top ODI run-scorer.

“This is a poor Australian side who have been utterly dismantled,” said BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew. “It was ruthless from England. The wheels fell off for Australia.”

Record-breaking England

• Highest Men’s one-day international total.
• England’s biggest ODI win and Australia’s heaviest defeat in terms of runs.
• The record for most boundaries hit in an ODI with 62. The previous mark of 59 was held by England and Sri Lanka.
• Morgan become the first batsman to score 3,000 ODI runs in England and Wales
• Bairstow is only the eighth player to score four centuries in six ODI innings, after Virat Kohli, David Warner, Quinton de Kock, Kumar Sangakkara, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Zaheer Abbas.
• Bairstow has hit four ODI centuries in 2018, equalling David Gower’s record in a calendar year (1983).
• Bairstow and Roy recorded their fourth century opening stand, equalling the England record shared by Nick Knight and Marcus Trescothick. (BBC Sport)