MELBOURNE: Jason Roy scored an England record 180 from 151 balls and shared a 221-run partnership with skipper Joe Root in a one-day international victory that ended a drought for the tourists in Australia.
Coming off a 4-0 loss in the five-test Ashes series, England won the toss and sent Australia in to bat Sunday in the series-opening ODI, then chased down the target of 305 with 7 balls and five wickets to spare.
The South Africa-born Roy was dominant from the start of the chase and surpassed Alex Hales' record of 171 — against Pakistan at Nottingham in 2016 — as the highest ever ODI score for England. He improved on his own high score of 162 against Sri Lanka at the Oval in 2016 June.
His fourth ODI hundred contained 16 boundaries and five sixes and gave him two of the four biggest ODI innings ever for England before he eventually skied a catch into the outfield from Mitchell Starc's bowling.
Root was unbeaten on 91 at the end as England reached 308-5 in the 49th over, having joined Roy in the sixth over when England was 60-2.
The World Cup champion Australians posted 304-8, with opener Aaron Finch scoring 107 and putting on 118 in a fourth-wicket partnership with Mitchell Marsh (50).
England took the early advantage when it dismissed key batsman David Warner (2) and Steve Smith (23) inside the first 11 overs. When Travis Head was out for 5 to the last ball of the 14th over, Australia was in trouble at 78-3.
But Finch reached his ninth ODI century — his fourth against England — and Marsh posted his 10th ODI half-century to revive the innings.
When Finch reached 75 he surpassed 3,000 ODI runs and went on to a century from 112 balls, raising the milestone with a six off legspinner Adil Rashid, the third of his innings.
He was out soon after, mis-hitting a ball from Moeen Ali that was caught by Jonny Bairstow at wide mid-wicket.
Marsh was bowled by Rashid as he stepped away to leg and missed a sliding delivery that hit leg stump.
Marcus Stoinis scored 60 down the order, reaching his second ODI half-century from 37 balls with five fours and a six.
Game two of the five-match series will be in Brisbane on Friday.