Australia finished its troubled tour to England on a high by clinching the limited-overs series with a 49-run victory in the fifth and deciding match at The Rose Bowl on Monday.
Shane Watson set up the win with a brutal 107-ball 143, containing 12 fours and six sixes, to help the Australians to 298 all out in the day-night match.
England was always up against it after slumping to 68-4 in its reply, and a 92-run stand between Ravi Bopara (62) and Jos Buttler (42) for the sixth wicket only delayed the inevitable. The home side was bundled out for 249 on the last ball of the 47th over.
After a tough English summer in which Australia was dumped out of the Champions Trophy at the group stage before being beaten 3-0 in the Ashes, the tourists finally have something to celebrate on the flight home.
Two of the first three ODIs in the series were canceled because of rain, before England won in Cardiff on Saturday to leave the fifth match as the decider.
The two great rivals will resume hostilities on the return tour in Australia, starting November in the first Ashes test in Brisbane.
For the fourth straight Ashes tour, the losers in the Test series went on to win the ODI series. And it was no surprise that record continued this year with England playing an experimental limited-overs side with the 2015 World Cup in mind.
Their chase was undone by two costly run-outs early on, which removed Kevin Pietersen on the fourth ball of the innings and No. 5 batsman luke Wright — both without scoring.