Bell-Drummond ton fires England

Daniel Bell-Drummond carried his bat in a deserved man of the match performance at Tony Ireland Stadium in Townsville as England reached Australia's target of 8/203 with three wickets in hand.

Australia were without paceman Pat Cummins for the international quad series opener and fell to 5-77 early after England's Reece Topley claimed the scalps of openers Cameron Bancroft and James Peirson for six and 11 respectively.

The wickets of Meyrick Buchanan (13), Travis Head (28) and Will Bosisto (4) fell in the space of three overs before Queenslander Nick Stevens revived Australia's innings with an unbeaten 76 off 78 balls, including five fours and two sixes.

Topley and Sam Wood finished the innings with three wickets each, while Craig Overton and Aneesh Kapil took one apiece for the tourists.

England started their chase in style, with Bell-Drummond and Sam Kelsall combining for 11 runs off Harry Conway's opening over.

Kelsall was the first to fall, caught by Gurinder Sandhu off Peirson for 4, as Bell-Drummond became England's leading run-scorer at under-19 level, surpassing Billy Godleman's mark of 710.

Left-arm spinner Ashton Agar made an instant impact for Australia in the 11th over, bowling Ben Foakes and Shiv Thakor with his first two deliveries.

Craig Overton defended the hat-trick ball and established a 68-run partnership with Bell-Drummond before Conway took his wicket for 28.

England reached the home side's total with 3.3 overs remaining and will face New Zealand at Endeavour Park on Saturday, while Australia will take on India at Tony Ireland Stadium.