England and their magnificent ODI run against Australia: A look back at all their bilateral series

England continued with his glorious form against Australia in the one-day internationals (ODIs) in the five-game home series by taking a 2-0 lead after the first two encounters. Eoin Morgan’s side will do its best to clinch the series at the earliest to back its impressive 4-1 dominance of the arch-rivals Down Under earlier this year after the 0-4 thrashing in the Test series.

As the hosts find yet another chance to annihilate their hapless opponents who have been hit hard by controversies and injuries of late and are being led by wicket-keeper Tim Paine, we take a brief look at all bilateral series two of cricket’s oldest sides have played till date. It is true that the cricketing rivalry between Australia and The Brits have been more absorbing in the Test arena, but there also has been some riveting competition between them in the ODIs – the variant in which they started locking horns in 1970-71, almost a century after their first Test encounter began.

England and Australia have played in 144 ODI games so far with the former winning 58 and the latter 81 while five games remained inconclusive. In the bilateral series that the two have played (including the one-off games), The English trail Australia 34-40 in a total of 80 games played between them.

This precisely means that while England have a success rate of 40.2 per cent against Australia in multilateral series, they have it bettered to 42.5 per cent in the bilateral ones and the 6-1 record in the last seven game has done them a world of good.

The two sides have played 21 bilateral series so far with the latter winning 12 of them while the former eight. The three-match series played in England in 1989 was drawn 1-1. Also, these two teams have taken on each other more frequently in ODIs in the last one decade. While only 12 England-Australia ODI series took place between 1970/71 and 2009, nine have happened since then.

Here is a short summary of all bilateral ODI series that England and Australia have played since their first game played in Melbourne in January 1975

Australia win 1-0: Australia defeated England by 5 wickets in Melbourne in a one-off game in January 1971.

England win 2-1: The English took the first-ever bilateral series (Prudential Trophy) with Australia featuring more than one match in August 1972 at home. They won the third match in Birmingham by just 2 wickets to pocket the series 2-1 after Australia equalled it 1-1.

England win 1-0: The Brits, led by Mike Denness, won the one-off game played in Melbourne in January 1975 by 3 wickets. It was England’s maiden win against Australia in a ODI Down Under.

England win 2-1: The hosts repeated their 1972 feat in June 1977 by winning the three-game series 2-1 to bag the Prudential Trophy yet again. England were led this time by Mike Brearley.

Australia win 2-1: Australia won the first-ever five-game ODI series played against England in December 1978-January 1979 by two games to one. The Aussies, captained by Graham Yallop, came back to win the home series after the first two games were inconclusive and England won the third to take a 1-0 lead. Four of the five matches of this series were played in Melbourne.

England win 2-0: The English made a hat-trick of winning the Prudential Trophy against Australia by winning the two-match series in August 1980 2-0. While Ian Botham led the English side, Greg Chappell was the skipper of the visiting side.

Australia win 2-1: The Kangaroos proved to be fourth time lucky in the Prudential Cup against their European rivals when they won the three-game series played in June 1981 2-1. Kim Hughes was the captain of the Australian side which won the country’s first-ever bilateral series in England.

Australia win 2-1: Allan Border’s Australia won the three-match series 2-1 to bag the Texaco Trophy in England in May-June 1985. The Aussies’ long-time domination over England had started.

Australia win 1-0: Border’s Australia defeated Mike Gatting’s England by 22 runs in the game played in Melbourne in February 1988 to commemorate the bicentenary of Australia. This match took place just months after Australia lifted their first world cup title defeating the same Gatting-led side in India.

Series drawn 1-1: The three-match Texaco Trophy series played in England in May 1989 is the only time Australia and England drew a ODI series. This series also saw a game getting tied in Nottingham.

Australia win 3-0: This was the first time that a three-or-more match series between Australia and England saw one side whitewashing the other. Australia won this three-match series played in May 1993 to lift their second Texaco Trophy. Australia were now captained by Mark Taylor who proved to be a worthy successor to Border while England still had Graham Gooch, whose side lost the World Cup final to Pakistan the year before, as its skipper.

England win 3-0: Michael Atherton led an English upsurge in times of Australia’s domination four years after the drubbing and paid Steve Waugh’s side back in the same coin. The memorable whitewash in May 1997 was England’s first-ever whitewash of the Aussies in a three-or-more match series, bettering the 2-0 victory of 1980.

Australia win 2-1: The next bilateral series between England and Australia took place after a gap of almost a decade in July 2005. It was the year when England wrested the Ashes from Australia after a long time. In the ODIs, however, the then reigning world champions won the 50-over series 2-1 after losing the first match to bag the NatWest Challenge. It was Australia’s fourth ODI series win in England since 1981.

Australia win 6-1: Ricky Ponting’s side tore The Britons apart in this seven-match NatWest Series played in September 2009, taking a 6-0 lead before losing the final game. Cameron White of the visiting team was picked for the man of the series award.

England win 3-2: The hosts had a welcome series win over the mighty Australians in June-July 2010 at home when they won 3-2 after clinching the series straightaway. Andrew Strauss was the leader of the England side which won a home series at home against Australia after 13 years.

Australia win 6-1: Australia repeated their 2009 feat in January 2011, destroying England by an identical margin of 6-1, this time in Australia. This still continues to be the widest margin of victory for the Aussies over England at home till date, bettering their 1978/79 record of 2-1. Michael Clarke was the captain of the Australian side while his English counterpart was Strauss.

The Brits  win 4-0: After two massive thrashings both at home and away against Australia between 2009 and 2011, England had to produce some counter effect and they did it in the NatWest Series played at home in June-July 2012, winning a five-game series 4-0 – their second nil win after the series of 1980 and 1997. One game was abandoned because of rain.

This was also the first series after Australia lost their long held crown of world champions in 2011 to India. Alastair Cook captained the side while Clarke was leading Australia. What a turnaround of fortune for him it was in a year. For England, this is the best victory over Australia unless it is broken in the ongoing series.

Australia win 2-1: Australia accomplished their sixth victory in a bilateral series versus the Brits, who were the hosts in September 2013, winning the five-game NatWest Series 2-1 under Clarke’s captaincy. Two games were inconclusive because of rain.

Australia win 4-1: Australia won the next series against the English 4-1 in January 2014 to continue with their undefeated form at home. It was Clarke and Cook again at the helm for Australia and England, respectively, in this series. Australia’s Aaron Finch was adjudged the man of the series.

Australia win 3-2: This has been Australia’s seventh away series (2015) victory against the English and the last ODI series win against the latter till now. In the absorbing September series which was only decided in the final game (3-2), the visitors were led by the now banned Steve Smith while the hosts were captained by Eoin Morgan.

England win 4-1: The hosts tasted a series victory against Australia after over five years and it came as their first conquest of Australia in Australia in a bilateral ODI series. The win that they registered in 1974/75 was in a one-off game. This overwhelming victory of England was special for it came after a depressing Ashes thrashing and it went on to show England’s transformation as a ODI side after their humiliating exit from the 2015 World Cup. England were led by Eoin Morgan while Australia was led by Smith. England’s Joe Root was picked as the player of the series.