Chasing England's 228 for nine wickets at The Rose Bowl, man-of-the-match White led Australia through the early loss of both openers to hit 105 in a total of 230-4.

Australia reached its target with nine balls to spare and now needs only to win Saturday's match at Lord's to clinch the seven-match series with three games to spare.

"It was a case of Groundhog Day," England captain Andrew Strauss said. "We didn't get enough runs on the board and our top six batters didn't score highly enough, which is something we'll have to address."

England added fielding mistakes to the inadequate scoring rate it had exhibited in the previous two matches but a third-wicket stand between White and Michael Clarke meant Australia was already heading for victory when White was dropped on 92.

James Anderson, who had trapped Shane Watson leg-before-wicket with the score on just 16, confused him with a slower ball and White skied an easy catch to Tim Bresnan only for the allrounder to ground the ball.

White took two runs and then another off the last ball of the over before reaching his century with a four and quickly run single in the next. He had needed 116 balls.

"Cameron White batted amazing out there," Clarke said. The wicket was a little two-paced and another 20 runs we'd have struggled to chase."

Clarke reached his 36th half century with a boundary off the next delivery but lasted just one more ball trying to hit Graeme Swann out of the ground, making the partnership worth 143.

His 52 had already helped secure the game and, although White was eventually out caught off the bowling of Luke Wright, Cameron Ferguson and Michael Hussey guided the tourists to victory.

England's troubles again stemmed largely from an inability to up its scoring to suit the one-day game.

Ravi Bopara and Matthew Prior fell within the space of six balls to slow an uncharacteristically quick start and, although captain Andrew Strauss hit 63, the home side's efforts to translate its test success into limited-overs cricket continued to fail.

Watson took 3-36 as only a 40-run ninth-wicket partnership from

Bresnan and Ryan Sidebottom pushed the score past 200 to give

England's bowlers something to work with.

Eoin Morgan managed a relatively sprightly 43 but Paul Collingwood's 28 from 52 balls was more typical of the laboured approach that has so far brought 4-run and 39-run losses for England.

Having seen his team struggle in a run chase after he chose to bat second in the last two matches, Strauss opted to bat first this time.

England breezed to 40 from the first seven overs but its momentum was severely checked by the loss of Bopara and Prior.

England stumbled to 98-4 to leave Collingwood as its last realistic hope of a big total.

He is in fourth place on England's all-time scorers list in one-day internationals, but has had to work hard for runs recently and failed to get to grips with an in-swinging delivery from Watson, hitting it to Nathan Bracken at mid-on.

Australia will be further boosted by the return to the squad of Ricky Ponting following his break from the tour, with Clarke handing leadership back to the full-time captain.