Australia win as England horror enters record books

England have entered the history books with a shocking start in their loss to Australia in the fourth ODI at Adelaide Oval on Friday.

The tourists had won all three ODIs in the series to date for an unassailable lead, perhaps firing a rocket up Steve Smith's side.

After Smith won the toss and elected to bowl following some rainfall in Adelaide earlier in the day, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins ripped through England's top order to reduce their opponents to 5-8 off 6.2 overs.

Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root all fell for ducks, while Alex Hales made three runs before he was bowled by Cummins.

Chris Woakes (78) and scores in the 30s from Eoin Morgan, Moeen Ali and Tom Curran rescued England to reach a respectable 196 all out off 44.5 overs.

Led by Travis Head's 96 at the top, Australia made it home for a three-wicket victory with 13 overs to spare.

ODI records and figures set by England's 5-8 start:

• Fewest runs conceded by Australia at the fall of the fifth wicket, overtaking the 17 conceded before taking the fifth wickets against Kenya (2002) and Zimbabwe (2004).

• Fewest runs scored by England at the fall of the fourth wicket, overtaking the 13 scored against Australia in 1999.

• Third-lowest score by any team after five wickets and second-lowest when batting first -- records: Sri Lanka were 5-6 chasing against Bangladesh in 2008-09 and Canada were 5-7 against the Netherlands in 2003.

• With just three runs from the first five players dismissed, England equalled the second-fewest runs scored -- records: one run by Canada against the Netherlands in 2013 and one run by PNG against Scotland in 2017-18.

• Fourth time both England openers have been dismissed for a duck and the first since Alastair Cook and Craig Kieswetter against India in 2011.

England's next task was to avoid overtaking Zimbabwe's 35 against Sri Lanka in 2004 as the worst ODI score of all time, a total they passed at the start of the 16th over for the loss of no more wickets.

The lowest score in Adelaide came in 1985-86 when New Zealand dismissed Australia for 70 runs, while England's worst ever is 86 against Australia in 2001.

As detailed by cricket stats guru Ric Finlay, there was some kind of hope for England.

At Lord's in 2005, with the home side reduced to 5-33 chasing Australia's target of 197, Geraint Jones and Paul Collingwood rescued England with a 116-run partnership.

England ended their 50 overs on 9-196 to tie the final of the tri-series that also featured Bangladesh.

But there was no mistaking that the fall to 5-8 was a marked turnaround in form from the first three matches of the series:

Stats courtesy of Ric Finlay, Sir Swampthing and Howstat.com