Manchester: Josh Hazlewood bowled brilliantly for 3-26 and took a diving catch for the key wicket of Jonny Bairstow to help Australia beat England by 19 runs despite a maiden century by Sam Billings in their one-day international here.
Needing a record chase at Old Trafford of 295 to win on Friday, England was reduced to 13-2 by Hazlewood and then 57-4 when legspinner Adam Zampa took two of his four wickets.
Bairstow (84) and Sam Billings (118 off 109 balls) put on 103 for the fifth wicket, but their partnership ended when Hazlewood got across to his right in cow corner to take a catch on the dive to remove Bairstow.
Billings pushed through for a defiant and innovative hundred but ran out of time in the face of some solid bowling under the lights, eventually losing his wicket off the final ball of the match. England finished on 275-9.
Hazlewood bowled so well early that he was given eight straight overs at the top of the innings, after which he had 2-21 with three maidens.
"There was a little bit there with the new ball and I made the most of it," said the paceman, who is a mainstay in the test team but sometimes rested in white-ball cricket.
"I was lucky to get a couple of early ones and keep them under pressure."
Australia took the lead in the three-match series against the world champions without star batsman Steve Smith, who was rested as a precaution after being hit on the head in the nets on Thursday. Smith has passed a concussion test and will be assessed again on Saturday ahead of the second match in Manchester on Sunday.
Put into bat in the teams' first ODI since last year's World Cup, Australia was also in trouble though not in quite so grave a position as England at 123-5 in the 24th over but recovered thanks to a stand of 126 runs by Glenn Maxwell (77 off 59 balls) and Mitch Marsh (73).
They gradually turned the pressure back on the bowlers. Marsh played an important anchor role while Maxwell opened up, hitting spinner Adil Rashid twice over the fence. The next ball after his second six earned Maxwell his 20th ODI fifty.
Maxwell hit paceman Jofra Archer for consecutive sixes in the 44th over but chopped the next ball on. Following his first fifty in 2 years, Marsh departed lbw to Mark Wood to end an innings that included six boundaries.
Mitchell Starc smashed a last-ball six to finish 19 not out and set England a highly competitive total on a slow pitch, the type England sometimes struggles on as acknowledged by captain Eoin Morgan before the match.
Jason Roy (3) and Joe Root (1) missed the recent T20 series between the teams and were out cheaply to Hazlewood, who caught and bowled Roy and got an edge behind off Root. Root, in particular, was worked over by the fast bowler before his almost inevitable demise.
Dangermen Morgan (23) and Jos Buttler (1) then fell to Zampa, meaning England was always well behind.
Bairstow dug in to reach his 13th and slowest ODI fifty off 78 balls before opting to go for some big hits to keep the run rate manageable. He'd hit four sixes by the time he holed out to Hazlewood off Zampa.
After Moeen Ali departed for 6 to give Hazlewood his third wicket, Australia was into the tail and was never really in danger of letting England back into the match.
Billings was playing in the absence of Ben Stokes one of just two players missing from England's World Cup-winning lineup and took his rare chance.
"I'm obviously very pleased, but in a losing cause it's mixed feelings," Billings said.
"It is one of the hardest teams in world sport to get into at the moment. I've put too much pressure on myself in the past.
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Jaipur, Mar 28: Young Riyan Parag showed why he is considered a precocious talent as he struck a stunning 84 not out off 45 balls to set up a 12-run win for Rajasthan Royals against Delhi Capitals in their IPL match here on Thursday.
Sent in to bat, RR were reduced to 36 for 3 in the eighth over but the 22-year-old Parag single-handedly took the home side to 185 for 5 with a magnificent unbeaten knock studded with seven fours and six sixes.
Parag, who was promoted to number 4 by the team management this season and made 43 in the previous match, took 25 runs off veteran South African pacer Anrich Nortje with scores of 4, 4, 6, 4, 6, 1 in the final over to hit his highest T20 score.
Chasing 186 for a win, DC could only manage 173 for 5 in 20 overs though South African youngster Tristan Stubbs (44 not out off 23 balls) kept them in the hunt till the final over from which they needed 17 runs.
Avesh Khan conceded just four runs to help RR win their second consecutive match.
South African pacer Nandre Burger and Yuzvendra Chahal took two wickets apiece to also contribute in the RR win.
"Definitely disappointed. The best thing to do from here is to learn from it. The bowlers did well through the 15-16 overs. But the batters did well at the death, hopefully we do better in the next game," DC skipper Rishabh Pant said.
DC were reduced to 34 for 2 in the fourth over with Burger taking two wickets in three balls in a fine display of fast bowling.
Burger, who was brought in as Impact Sub for Shimron Hetmyer, dismissed opener Mitchell Marsh (23 off 12 balls) and Ricky Bhui (0) in the fourth over.
DC captain Rishabh Pant came out to bat at the fall of Bhui's wicket and along with senior batter David Warner built the innings without taking too much risk. Delhi were 89 for 2 at the halfway stage.
Warner was the more aggressive one as he got the boundaries to keep DC in the hunt. The senior Australian batter fell one run short of his fifty courtesy a brilliant diving catch by Sandeep Sharma off the bowling of Avesh in the 12th over.
Warner and Pant were involved in a crucial 67-run partnership for the third wicket.
Playing in his 100th IPL match and 14 months after a horrible car crash, Pant tried to build the innings with occasional boundaries. But he got out for a 26-ball 28 as Chahal induced a faint lower edge for Sanju Samson to do the rest behind the stumps in the 14th over.
The asking rate shot up to more than 13 runs an over and DC needed 66 from the last five overs.
Stubbs kept DC in the game with two consecutive sixes off Ravichandran Ashwin in the 17th over, but in the end the Delhi side were short by 12 runs.
They needed 34 runs from the final two overs which they could not get. It was DC's second consecutive loss.
Earlier, Parag shared 54 and 52 runs respectively with Ravichandran Ashwin (29) and Dhruv Jurel (20) after RR made a shaky start.
Royals captain Samson struck three consecutive boundaries in the fourth over bowled by pacer Mukesh Kumar before nicking a Khaleel Ahmed delivery two overs later to Pant to get out for 15.
RR were 30 for 2 by then as Mukesh had given DC their first breakthrough with the wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal (5).
The Royals were in more trouble after wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav literally forced his captain Pant to take a review, which later proved to be successful, to dismiss Englishman Jos Buttler for an LBW decision.
Ashwin came out to bat at number five and he lofted a Kuldeep delivery for a six to help RR reach 58 for 3 at halfway stage. He gave Nortje even a harsher treatment with two sixes in the next over that yielded 15 runs.
Ashwin, however, holed out to Tristan Stubbs near the boundary ropes for a 19-ball 29.
Parag then made his presence felt, striking two boundaries and a six off Ahmed to take RR past 100 in the 15th over.