Australia’s blushes were spared at Manuka Oval on Friday night as rain halted what looked to be a crushing win for England, which instead ended as a no result.
Earlier weather issues had reduced the visitor’s overs from 20 down to 12, with Jos Buttler blasting 65 off 41, and Dawid Malan and Ben Stokes chipping in with 23 off 19 and 17 off 10, respectively.
Australia were given a revised target of 130 to chase, and could not have gotten off to a worse start as skipper Aaron Finch holed out in the deep on the first ball.
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It was typical of his recent luck — most nights, it would probably be a boundary, but instead, a ball right out of the middle was down the throat of Harry Brook.
Mitch Marsh followed on the next ball, leaving Australia two wickets down and Chris Woakes on a hat trick.
“He made the ball swing and take early wickets, it was brilliant bowling,” Buttler said of his star bowler afterwards.
Glenn Maxwell poked one meekly to mid-off two overs later and by the time the covers were back on the pitch, the hosts needed 100 runs in 49 balls.
Five overs would have been enough for a result, which would have undoubtedly been a huge Duckworth/Lewis loss for Australia, but hope that the teams would get back on by the cut-off time that would enable another seven balls to be bowled quickly dissipated.
“The conditions just kept getting worse, didn’t they?” Finch said afterwards.
”It would have been nice to play a full game, but not to be.”
England had already taken the first two matches of the three-game set, and win the series 2-0.
Australia continue their World Cup preparations on Monday, when they play India at the Gabba.
Their first match of the tournament proper will be next Saturday night at the SCG, against New Zealand.
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