Adelaide, Australia: Clint McKay took three wickets, including a bizarre stumping to dismiss Ravi Bopara, as Australia beat England by five runs in the fifth one-day cricket international on Sunday to win the five-match series 4-1.
Australia made 217-9 in its 50 overs after choosing to bat on a sluggish pitch at the Adelaide Oval and England lost its last wicket at 212 with three balls remaining in a match marking the Australia Day national holiday.
England seemed to be coasting to victory when Joe Root made 55 and Eion Morgan 39 in a 64-run partnership for the foruth wicket that had it 154-4 in the 36th over. But it lost vital wickets quickly in a chaotic run chase and Bopara was left as its last specialist batsman and its last hope of ending the series with a win.
Bopara saw a succession of partners come and go as England stumbled towards a winning total and did everything in his power to marshal the resources of the England tail.
He was on 25 and seemed in command of an anxious situation when McKay, bowling at pace to wicketkeeper Matthew Wade, who was skillfully and courageously standing up to the stumps, beat his outside off. The ball struck Wade's gloves, dislodged and fell forward onto the stumps just as Bopara lifted his back foot an inch above the ground.
