Chris Waters: White-ball dominance helping England soothe pain of the Ashes

“Rivalry dead: brilliant Aussies humiliate pathetic Poms” the newspaper added, bemoaning the lack of a contest as Australia took an unassailable lead with two games to play.

Although the patriotic Sydney paper will not be echoing such sentiments ahead of tomorrow’s third one-day international in their own city, they would be entitled to do so – only this time from an English point of view.

For after England took a 2-0 lead in the five-match one-day series in Brisbane yesterday, it is now English cricket fans who could be forgiven for wondering whether Anglo-Australian ODI rivalry is dead after the brilliant Poms instead humiliated the pathetic Aussies.

The ODIs have certainly been little contest so far, with England proving again their Jekyll and Hyde character on the world stage.

In one-day cricket, they possess all the status and stature of Dr Henry Jekyll, Robert Louis Stevenson’s “large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty”.

In Test cricket, however, at least away from home, they possess more of the foibles and follies of Edward Hyde, unable to suppress dangerous urges to give away their wickets and bowl poor deliveries with disastrous results.

Give England a red ball in Australia, and they seem to regard it with all the certainty of a layman dealing with a hand grenade; give them a white ball, and it is they who are explosive, they who have the ability to blow away opponents.

Not even a second successive hundred from Aaron Finch, the former Yorkshire batsman, was sufficient to deny them at the Gabba. Finch, who scored 107 in England’s five-wicket victory in Melbourne last Sunday, made 106 this time before the tourists completed a four-wicket win with 34 balls to spare.

Australia’s total of 270-9 from their 50 overs after they won the toss and chose to bat would have been a good one in days of yore, but it is the modern equivalent of a total more befitting the days of snore.

A run-rate of less than six-an-over? It counts for little in contemporary currency and is not going to win you too many matches.

Steve Smith, the captain who could not stop scoring runs in the Ashes, managed only 18 from 25 balls yesterday after managing only 23 from 18 in the match in Melbourne.

Joe Root, who must have watched Smith’s Ashes output with increasing frustration, seems to have temporarily taken on the Australian’s mantel.

Root scored an unbeaten 46 to steer England home (having earlier displayed his all-round skill with 2-31 in seven overs of off spin) as he built on his undefeated 91 in Melbourne. Named man-of-the-match yesterday, Root is set to make his 100th ODI appearance in Sydney tomorrow.

One man who brought up a magic 100 yesterday was Yorkshire’s Liam Plunkett.

His dismissal of Finch – caught at mid-on by Jason Roy – was his 100th wicket in ODI cricket on his 64th appearance.

“If someone told me 5 years ago I would return to play for England and take 100 ODI wickets I would of (sic) struggled to believe them,” tweeted a man who played only two ODIs between July 2007 and June 2015. “Really happy to reach this milestone.”

It was a good day, indeed, at least in terms of personal performance, for all the English and Australian players on show with Yorkshire connections, with the solitary exception of Travis Head.

The Australian scored only seven before popping back a return catch to Root and then bowled seven wicket-less overs for 55 runs.

In addition to the efforts of Finch, Root and Plunkett, Yorkshire’s Adil Rashid picked up two wickets in the Australia innings and Yorkshire’s Jonny Bairstow top-scored with 60 in England’s reply.

The day’s best bowling figures were returned by Mitchell Starc, who captured 4-59 with the sort of strike-bowling power that was evident when he played for Yorkshire back in 2012.

While Starc shone, Australia missed his pace bowling partners Josh Hazlewood (ill) and Pat Cummins (rested), who also caused havoc during the Ashes.

With leg-spinner Adam Zampa dropped as the home side chose not to field a specialist spinner, relying on the part-time work of Head and Finch, it seemed even more mystifying that off-spinner Nathan Lyon – another scourge of England during the Test series – cannot get a gig in the shorter format.

Australia were missing some good players, yes, but the gulf in class seems wider than that on the evidence of the first two games.

A hat tip, also, for Eoin Morgan, not always the guarantee of runs but a dynamic captain who had a particularly good match in that regard.