James Taylor century keeps one-day series alive as England beat Australia

England kept alive hopes of winning the one-day series against Australia with a comfortable victory by 93 runs at Old Trafford. James Taylor scored his maiden limited overs international century but Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid took five wickets between them as the tourists fell well short of 301-run target.

Jason Roy made 63 and captain Eoin Morgan made 62 but Taylor stole the headlines with a well-paced innings which though it saw England make their highest score of the innings, initially looked sub-par after they were restricted to 300 for 8 from their 50 overs.

A much changed Australia were 106 for 2, with the returning Aaron Finch making 53, and seemingly cruising towards an unassailable lead in the series but the double spin axis of Ali (3-32) and Rashid (2-41) helped England ease to victory as the world champions slumped to a paltry 207 all out. Liam Plunkett also took three wickets, which included a breathtaking catch from Jason Roy to dismiss debutant Ashton Agar, to enhance his claim as the second seamer.

Eoin Morgan's side now travel to Headingley on 11 September in the hope of taking the series into a decider, having reduced the deficit to 2-1. Meanwhile opposite number Steven Smith will be hoping his newly assembled team can fuse together in time to claim the remaining victory needed to earn some respectability after relinquishing the Ashes earlier in the tour. "We impressed in the areas I asked the guys for," Morgan said. "Jason Roy played his game, strong down the ground. Me and James Taylor managed to get a nice partnership going.

"Probably got 20-30 than we would have liked, but knew the pitch would play into our hands. We want guys to make matchwinning contributions and James Taylor did that. I thought they [the spinners] were outstanding. We knew the new ball would set the tone because it was easier facing the new ball so Steve Finn was really impressive, then for the two spinners to bowl with such control I was not surprised but very impressed."