Steven Finn
Finn celebrates the dismissal of Matthew Wade Reuters

Steven Finn took four wickets as England registered an eight-wicket win over Australia at Chester-le-Street to clinch the five match one-day series with a game to spare. The win puts the hosts 3-0 up in the series, after the third match at Edgbaston was washed out.

The two teams made two changes each for this game. For England, Samit Patel replaced the rested Graeme Swann, while James Anderson returned in place of Jade Dernbach. For the visitors, James Pattinson and Ben Hilfenhaus came in for Mitchell Johnson and Xavier Doherty, as they fielded an all-pace bowling attack

Having been sent in to bat first, Australia endured a disappointing time at the crease. The England seamers dominated proceedings in a fantastic display of fast bowling, limiting the visitors to just 200. Shane Watson (28), Michael Clarke (43), David Hussey (70) and Brett Lee (27) were the only ones to reach double figures.

Finn was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4/37 and had two hat-trick chances in the game. The first came in the sixth over as he sent back David Warner and then Peter Forrest with successive LBWs, with the score at 6/2. The 23 year old then dismissed Clarke and Matthew Wade in successive deliveries in the 33rd over, with Australia stuck at 96/6. James Anderson and Tim Bresnan took two wickets each, while Ravi Bopara also got in on the act when he bowled George Bailey.

England enjoyed a comfortable chase, thanks to Ian Bell (69) and Jonathan Trott (64 not out). Captain Alastair Cook also made a useful contribution of 29, while Bopara scored the winning runs in his unbeaten knock of 33, to give England its record ninth successive win.

"It's great to win nine in a row. It was a solid performance. Clearly it was a good toss to win but that doesn't mean you're guaranteed to win. We bowled really well and never let them off the hook and it was quite an easy chase in the end. Australia have been a good side so to win 3-0 and to win quite comfortably is a credit to us," BBC quoted Cook as saying.

The final match in the series will be a day-and-night encounter at Old Trafford on Tuesday.

Australia