4 times Australia suffered a whitewash in ODIs

Australia have undoubtedly been the best ODI team for the best part of the last three decades. With five World Cups to their name, Australia is an undisputed powerhouse of cricket. But there have been instances when Australian cricket team failed to win even a single ODI in a series (minimum 3 matches).

England and Australia battled for the fourth time in their ongoing Royal London Cup at Chester-le-street. Aaron Finch and Shaun Marsh scored a century each but England still chased down the target of 311 to take a 4-0 lead in the series with relative ease.

Australia is on the verge of facing a whitewash - something they've done to England twice in the Ashes. If it happens, this will only be the fourth time that Australia have been whitewashed in an ODI series and only the second time in a five-match ODI series.

Does a whitewash dampen a team’s confidence and make them question their powers and simply go - Are we good enough? Yes, it does. This Australia side looks pale and merely a shadow of their former selves.

With a whitewash on the cards, let's take a look at the previous four times Australia were whitewashed in an ODI series:

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#1 England, 1997

England became the first team to whitewash Australia in an ODI series

Under the leadership of Mark Taylor, the Australian side traveled to England in 1997 for the Texaco trophy. With the likes of Waugh brothers, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath the side looked solid on paper. But it is fair to say they were humbled by their English counterparts.

Mike Atherton led England to a 3-0 win in the Texaco trophy to give Australia a taste of an ODI whitewash for the first time in their history. This was also the 6th consecutive Texaco trophy won by England.

Alec Stewart made a brilliant 79 at Lord's in the final match to complete a 3-0 rout of the Australian team. This series had a drastic impact on Cricket Australia as then captain Mark Taylor was replaced by Steve Waugh. This decision paid dividends as Australia won the 1999 World Cup under the leadership of Steve Waugh to claim their second world title.

#2 New Zealand, 2007

Fleming led New Zealand to their first series win over their rivals in the Chappel-Hadlee trophy

New Zealand and Australia have had some memorable battles in their storied rivalry and one such battle was the 2006-07 Chappel-Hadlee trophy. Australia traveled across the Tasman sea with a mission to retain the trophy they had won in 2005 by beating New Zealand 2-1 under the leadership of Ricky Ponting.

Mike Hussey was the man in charge in 2006 as Australia suffered a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of the New Zealand cricket team. Australia was bundled out for 148 in the first ODI, which the hosts chased without losing any wicket.

The second and third ODIs were much more competitive but the result was still the same. Australia managed to go past 300 in both the ODIs but failed to defend their total against a rampant New Zealand team as they won the next ODIs by five wickets and one wicket respectively.

This meant that Stephen Fleming became the first captain to lead New Zealand to a win over Australia in the Chappel-Hadlee trophy.

#3 England, 2012

Australia traveled to England in 2012 as the No. 1 ranked ODI side of the world. Though they were up against the tough English conditions it was still expected to be a close contest except it wasn’t.

Australia were blown out of the park as they ended the series without a single victory to show for as Alastair Cook captained the English side to a 4-0 victory over their Ashes rivals. The third match at Edgbaston was washed out and spared Australia the ignominy of their first 5-0 whitewash in ODI history.

Eoin Morgan, now the leading run-scorer for England in ODI format, made his presence felt at the international level as he was instrumental in England's demolition of the Australian cricket team. England had five of the six leading run-getters in the series as they won the first game by 15 runs and the second by six wickets. The fourth and fifth ODI was won even more comfortably as the hosts won it by eight and seven wickets respectively.

Steven Finn was the standout bowler for as he took 8 wickets to end the series with most wickets. Ian Bell was a key factor in inflicting a humiliating series loss over Australia as he ended the series with the most number of runs and was deservingly named the Player of the Series.

#4 South Africa, 2016/17

The Proteas became the first team to whitewash Australia 5-0 in an ODI series

The most recent one and still fresh in the memory of cricket fans around the globe as this is the only time Australia ended up on the losing side in each of the 5 matches played in a series.

Australia traveled to South Africa for a 5-match ODI series in 2016 and the Proteas, under the leadership of Faf du Plessis outplayed their opponents in each outing. Rilee Rossouw top-scored for South Africa over the course of the series and was rightly awarded the Man of the Series award.

A young Australian bowling side was expected to face tough competition from South Africa but a whitewash was the last thing anyone would have expected. Especially considering the fact that Australia still had the likes of David Warner, Aaron Finch and, captain Steve Smith.

The hosts won the first ODI on the back of a sublime 178 from Quinton de Kock and they didn't look back after that. The 142-run hammering in the second ODI came courtesy of a century from the Proteas captain and an Australian top-order failure. The third and fourth ODI was won by four and six wickets.

History was made in the final ODI as Australia failed to chase 328 despite Warner's 173 and were whitewashed by South Africa.