After beating England by five wickets in the third and final Twenty20 International (T20I) at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton, Australia has reclaimed their number one spot in the T20I rankings on Tuesday night.
Despite losing the series 2-1, Australia did some hard yards to win the dead-rubber before shifting their focus on ODI series which is scheduled to commence from September 11. The first of the three-match series will kick-off at the Old Trafford in Manchester.
Owing to their run chase of 146 in their consolidated victory, despite losing three quick wickets the visitors recover well courtesy Mitchell Marsh’s 36-ball 39, to chase down the target in 19.3 overs.
Besides, between the score of 70 and 87, Australia lost Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell and Aaron Finch, who scored 26-ball 39 with the help of four boundaries and a solitary six. However, Marsh played a sensible knock to see his side over the line.
England vs Australia: Moeen Ali made captaincy debut
Earlier, Australia won the toss and opted to field first. Interestingly, as Eoin Morgan rested himself ahead of the ODI campaign, Moeen Ali was handed over the captaincy — to see hosts posting 145 for six in 20 allotted overs. Ali also became the first player from Asian origin to captain England in any of the formats at the international level.
Australian bowlers bowled brilliantly as Finch shuffled his bowlers well. Adam Zampa managed to pick two wickets in his quota of two overs after conceding 34 runs. However, rest of the lot managed to pick a wicket each including Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.
For England wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow was the top scorer with 55 off 44 deliveries. He had slammed three sixes and as many fours.
As visitors were chasing the target of 146, they had a flying start with 30 in three overs before lost three wickets for 14 runs. However, it didn’t dent visitors who were already trailing by 2-0 in the series.
The victory in the final T20 has allowed Finch-led side — to reclaim their number spot in the ICC T20 rankings after slipping to number two position owing to the back-to-back losses against England in Southampton.
Australia had now claimed 6,047 points with their rating reading as 275 in 22 T201s, whereas, England had 275 rating points in the same number of matches.
The arch-rivals are followed by India (266) Pakistan (261) with South Africa (258) maintaining the fifth spot in ICC T20I rankings.
Australia tops ICC T20I Ranking charts:
| ICC T20 Rankings | Teams | No. of games | Rating points |
| 1 | Australia | 22 | 275 |
| 2 | England | 22 | 271 |
| 3 | India | 35 | 266 |
| 4 | Pakistan | 23 | 261 |
| 5 | South Africa | 17 | 258 |
| 6 | New Zealand | 23 | 242 |
| 7 | Sri Lanka | 23 | 230 |
| 8 | Bangladesh | 20 | 229 |
| 9 | Windies | 24 | 229 |
| 10 | Afghanistan | 17 | 228 |
