SYDNEY: England’s long and cheerless cricket tour of Australia ended with one last, resounding defeat on Sunday when they were beaten by 84 runs in the third and final Twenty20 International.

An Ashes tour that began full of promise and optimism 100 days ago, crawled to a downbeat ending as Australia made 195-6, batting first after winning the toss, and dismissed England for 111 in 17.2 overs at Stadium Australia.

The win extended Australia’s superiority over England in all forms the game, allowing them to follow a 5-0 sweep of the Ashes Test series and 4-1 win in the One-day Internationals with a 3-0 rout in the Twenty20 series.

In 13 matches against Australia this summer, England won only once — the fourth ODI by 57 runs in Perth.

The England team that will leave Australia on Monday seems a pale shadow of the one that arrived 3½ months earlier, favoured to win a fourth-straight Ashes series.

The tour had many casualties. Leading batsman Jonathan Trott departed early after suffering from an anxiety-related illness; spinner Graeme Swann announced his retirement after the third Test in Perth where Australia completed a series victory and fast bowler Steven Finn returned home during the one-day series.

Test coach Andy Flower has already been forced from his job and Alastair Cook, who led England with increasing despair through the Tests and ODIs, is uncertain whether he wants to continue as captain.

Others, including batsman Kevin Pietersen, may be discarded as England attempt to rebuild after one of their most disastrous tours.

All the elements of their dismal summer were encapsulated in their defeat on Sunday.

England’s performance wasn’t entirely without spirit but, just as they began to seem competitive, a couple of brilliant individual performances from the Australians took the match beyond their grasp.

Captain Stuart Broad, who endured all 100 days in Australia, produced one last, plucky effort and took 3-30 from his four overs and England briefly checked Australia’s scoring through the middle of their innings.

Broad dismissed Brad Hodge and Dan Christian in quick succession as Australia faltered from 130-3 to 139-6 at the end of the 16th over.

But Australia captain George Bailey reasserted his team’s dominance with an unbeaten innings of 49 from 20 balls, smashing 24 runs, including two sixes and three fours, from the last over bowled by Jade Dernbach.

Bailey hit three sixes and four fours in a wildfire innings that broke England’s spirit and ended their defiance, for which he was named Man-of-the-Match.

Earlier, Cameron White and Aaron Finch gave Australia a sound start, putting on 48 for the first wicket in 6.4 overs. White made 41 from 37 balls and Finch 30 from 21.

“We put in our best performance tonight,” Bailey said. “I’ve had a few lucky nights but we played good cricket. It will be difficult to pick a side now for the Caribbean but it’s a nice problem to have.”

There was almost no pluck left when England came to bat: the fight had gone out of them and they appeared to be thinking only of the flight home.

Luke Wright was out for eight, Alex Hales (six) and Ben Stokes (five) as England staggered to 25-3 after five overs where Australia had been 27-0.

Eoin Morgan offered a little, fragmentary resistance by scoring 34 from 20 balls but Joe Root fell for 11, Jos Buttler for eight and when Morgan got out, England were 82-6.

Leg-spinner James Muirhead took 2-13, paceman Nathan Coulter-Nile 2-21 and off-spinner Glenn Maxwell 2-31.

“It’s been good fun throughout the tour but we’ve been hugely disappointing, not at the races for three months,” Broad said. “But you have to give credit to Australia.

“We’ve got a two-week break at home, then go to the Caribbean but we know we’re a decent T20 side. We can now get together as a group for a decent period to work on specific things, improve and learn from this week.

“We’ve got to go on to [the ICC World Twenty20] Bangladesh with confidence and hopefully we can get some momentum in the Caribbean.”—AP

Scoreboard

AUSTRALIA:

C.L. White c Buttler b Jordan 41

A.J. Finch c Broad b Bresnan 30

G.J. Maxwell c Hales b Broad 14

B.C.J. Cutting c and b Root 29

G.J. Bailey not out 49

B.J. Hodge c Dernbach b Broad 7

D.T. Christian b Broad 0

M.S. Wade not out 19

EXTRAS (LB-2, W-4) 6

TOTAL (for six wkts, 20 overs) 195

FALL OF WKTS: 1-48, 2-65, 3-118, 4-130, 5-139, 6-139.

DID NOT BAT: M.A. Starc, N.M. Coulter-Nile, J.M. Muirhead.

BOWLING: Broad 4-0-30-3; Jordan 4-0-23-1 (1w); Bresnan 4-0-42-1; Stokes 3-0-36-0 (1w); Dernbach 4-0-49-0 (2w); Root 1-0-13-1.

ENGLAND:

L.J. Wright c Cutting b Starc 8

A.D. Hales c Muirhead b Coulter-Nile 6

B.A. Stokes c Cutting b Maxwell 5

J.E. Root c Cutting b Maxwell 11

E.J.G. Morgan c Starc b Cutting 34

J.C. Buttler c Maxwell b Christian 8

R.S. Bopara b Coulter-Nile 4

T.T. Bresnan st Wade b Muirhead 14

C.J. Jordan not out 10

S.C.J. Broad b Muirhead 2

J.E. Dernbach run out 1

EXTRAS (B-2, LB-4, W-2) 8

TOTAL (all out, 17.2 overs) 111

FALL OF WKTS: 1-11, 2-19, 3-25, 4-60, 5-79, 6-82, 7-92, 8-98, 9-104.

BOWLING: Starc 2.2-0-8-1 (1w); Coulter-Nile 4-0-21-2; Maxwell 4-0-31-2; Cutting 3-0-18-1 (1w); Christian 2-0-14-1; Muirhead 2-0-13-2.

RESULT: Australia won by 84 runs to win series 3-0.

UMPIRES: S.D. Fry and P. Wilson (both Australia).

TV UMPIRE: J.D. Ward (Australia).

MATCH REFEREE: A.J. Pycroft (Zimbabwe).

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: George Bailey.

FIRST MATCH: Hobart, Australia won by 13 runs.

SECOND MATCH: Melbourne, Australia won by eight wickets.