Australia vs England 2018, 1st ODI - What went wrong for the hosts

As the action between Australia and England shifted from Tests to limited-overs, the touring party saw a reversal in their fortunes and finally managed to end their win drought Down Under.

Riding on Jason Roy's 180 and Joe Root's unbeaten 91, England outplayed Australia by 5 wickets and secured a 1-0 lead in the five-match ODI series in Melbourne on Sunday.

The second ODI will be played in Brisbane on Friday.

Now, let's have a look at the 5 things that went against the hosts.

#5 Steven Smith's captaincy

The harsh reality of a team sport is that it all comes down the skipper when the things go wrong.

Australian captain Steven Smith, who was almost untouchable in the Test series, failed in his first assignment as the format shifted to limited overs.

The 28-year-old, who contributed with just 23 runs and left Australia looking vulnerable at 78/3, went in with 7 bowling options in order to defend 304.

He kept on persisting with Adam Zampa in the middle overs. Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins were also not replaced as they went on to bowl their full quotas of 10 overs, while English batsmen made merry.

#4 Giving a free hand to Jason Roy

Australia have now lost seven of their past eight ODI games and their inability to defend 300-plus totals is becoming a serious headache for the hosts.

It looked that Steven Smith & Co. were too complacent after putting a total of 304/8 on the board and ended up giving a free hand to Jason Roy to score a big hundred.

The high-flying hosts did not expect a team that lost had recently lost the five-match Ashes Test series against them to produce enough firepower to chase down a total of 300-plus.

To their surprise, the 27-year-old England opener showcased an absolute masterclass with a 151-ball 180 to pull off the first-ever chase of 300-plus by any side at Australia's grandest ground.

#3 Bowlers being too expensive

Australian skipper Steven Smith used 7 bowlers in his bid to defend a competitive total of 305.

Except for Andrew Tye, all the Australian bowlers were taken to the cleaners by the English batsmen as they chased down 305 with 7 balls to spare.

Although Tye did not give away too many runs, he remained wicketless even after bowling a full quota of 10 overs.

The hosts' strike bowler Mitchell Starc and reliable pacer Pat Cummins were collectively looted for 134 runs in their 20 overs, while Adam Zampa, who was the most expensive of the lot, went for 72 in his 10.

#2 Posting an inadequate total

Although a target of 305 is not a modest one, in the end, it proved to be a cakewalk for England.

The hosts were put in to bat by Eoin Morgan and after the early departures of David Warner, Steven Smith and Travis Head, Australia were reduced to 78/3.

Aaron Finch (107) combined forces with Mitchell Marsh (50) to bring up a 118-run partnership before Marcus Stoinis scored a useful 60 to propel the hosts to 304/8 from their 50 overs.

While chasing, England faced no problem whatsoever as they crossed the finish line in the 49th over.

"We probably left ourselves a few short, we lost a few wickets in the middle and that stopped us going from as hard as we liked at the back end," Steven Smith said at the post-match presentation.

"If we got 340, 350 that's what we were after. We weren't able to do that, and we didn't start as well as we'd like with the ball either, they got off to a flying start.

"We tried everything we could to pull them back and take wickets but it wasn't our night."

#1 Collective failure of the bowling unit

Australia boast of one of the most formidable bowling attacks when it comes to Test cricket, but, when it comes to limited overs, the same bowlers look quite ineffective.

Consequently, in an absolute contrast to the recently-concluded Ashes Test series, Australian pace battery was completely inadequate against the hard-hitting English batsmen.

Mitchell Starc, who wreaked havoc in the longest format of the game until a few days ago, looked totally out of the place in the 50-over cricket.

A lot is expected out of Starc as he is Steven Smith's go-to man as far as tormenting the oppositions' batsmen are concerned but the pacer could not make waves with his lacklustre performance.

Overall, Andrew Tye was economical but remained wicketless, Pat Cummins claimed two wickets but went for too many runs, while Adam Zampa conceded maximum runs and failed to take even a single wicket.