Some great batting by James Taylor and Jason Roy helped England secure their first win in the 5-match One Day International series against Australia.
While, Roy scored a quick fire half century, his second in the series, Taylor got to three figures and the English managed to post a decent score to the Aussies after batting first at Old Trafford.
And, then the spinners played their part as they accounted for five dismissals in helping conditions and restricted the opposition far behind the target.
Winning the toss benefitted England as the pitch just kept getting drier and drier and more difficult for batting especially to the slower bowlers.
301 had looked like a score which could be chased with the firepower in Australian batting and the openers were in mood which got the visitors off to a fine start.
Aaron Finch, who was making a comeback, was happily taking the aerial route on regular occasions and was collecting boundaries down the ground with ease.
But, as the shine went off the ball and the spin bowling came into play, the game changed.
The spinners put the squeeze on and the fielders did their bit as well with fully committed efforts.
There were no easy singles on offer in the inner ring and with the number of remaining balls getting lesser in comparison to the number of runs required to be scored, the batsmen started trying to manufacture shots and the wickets tumbled.
Glenn Maxwell despite having hit two back to back boundaries reverse sweeping through covers went for the third attempt of the same shot and perished.
George Bailey played a horrible shot too as he slammed a full toss down the throat of deep midwicket.
England will now be looking to square up the series on Friday at Leeds before returning to Old Trafford again for the fifth and last game.