England beat Australia in the third ODI of the five match to take an insurmountable 3-0 lead in the series. The margin was a rather close, one-wicket, but what would have mattered to the side, the most would have been the series win over their arch-rivals after having lost the previous series between the two sides by a 6-1 margin. 
Batting first, the Aussies were off to a flier and scored 75/1 in the 14 overs, thanks to Tim Paine and Shane Watson showing signs of returning back to form. Watson made a well-deserved half century, while Paine looked good to get one as well, before being lbw to Michael Yardy.
Even after Ricky Ponting was stumped off a delivery that spun a mile from Graeme Swann, Watson and the out-of-form batsman, Michael Clarke took the score to 130/2 in the 27th over and it looked like the side could get to 300 if they accelerated well enough.
However, it was a middle-order collapse that saw the side capitulate badly after that. Swann accounted for both the set batsmen, Watson and Clarke, while the previous game’s top-scorer, Cameron White made only 12 before becoming Swann’s fourth victim.
With the rest of the side hardly contributing, the Aussies collapsed to 212 all out with four overs still remaining.
In reply, England knew that they needed to only bat out the overs and the game would be theirs. So would the series. But in Shaun Tait, the Aussies did have some kind of an edge and he immediately stuck with the wicket of Craig Kieswetter. Kieswetter got a first ball duck and England was 1/1.
The recovery came from the captain Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen, who added a half century for the second wicket, while Paul Collingwood did enough to ensure that the side was 128/2 in the 31st over. Strauss had completed his second successive half century whereas Eoin Morgan’s 35-ball 27 meant that England was 185/3 in the 42nd over.
28 runs were needed for a win off eight overs and with seven wickets standing when England did what Australia had earlier done. Morgan and Strauss departed within four runs of each other, while Luke Wright, Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad contributed only one run amongst them to be suddenly reduced to 203/9!
The hosts had lost six wickets for 18 runs and were in a danger of losing the game before Tim Bresnan made an unbeaten 15-ball 14 to guide his side to a win. This included an edged four to the third-man boundary off the first ball of the last over.
Swann’s four for 37 off his ten won him the man of the match.