Australia completed a ODI clean sweep in a dominant Ashes win over England

Australia has lost one ODI since 2017 and a rampant Ashes win could be the entree for World Cup glory.

Meg Lanning (L) and Ellyse Perry (R) helped Australia romp to victory over England in Melbourne (Photo by William WEST / AFP)

Australia will head to the World Cup with the best sort of hold on the old enemy after a putting an exclamation mark on dominant Ashes victory over England on Tuesday.

Captain Meg Lanning smashed a six at the Junction Oval in Melbourne to score the winning runs, seal the clean-sweep of the one-day series and sending a clear signal that the T20 World Cup champions are primed to take the 50-over title as well.

The only thing that could halt Australia’s momentum could be the 10-days in quarantine confronting Lanning and her side when they arrive in New Zealand in pursuit of a first 50-over World Cup since 2013.

Keen to hoist the trophy on the back of a series-closing win, rather than a loss as happened against India late last year, the home team destroyed the tourists with a batting romp after the bowlers left the tourists flagging ahead of another clash in the World Cup opener next month.

Australia has lost just one of it’s past 30 ODIs and the all-round dominance continued to show out with Annabel Sutherland taking a career best haul of 4-31 as England lost 7-29 in a batting collapse which has been the hallmark of a disappointing end to their tour.

Lanning, who made a 17th ODI half-century and resurgent superstar Ellyse Perry (31 not out) then had their way with the English bowlers in a 90- run partnership as Australia chased down England’s paltry 163 with 13 overs to spare.

Evidence of the overwhelming win across the multi-format series, which included a Test match and two out of three T20s washed out, Australia finished with six of the seven leading wicket-takers and four of the top six run scorers.

Australian All-rounder Tahlia McGrath was named played of the series, for the second time this summer, after making 225 runs and taking 11 wickets, an equal-series high.

Lanning’s final match innings of 57-not out thrust her to the top of the run-scorers list with 254 as she began to eye off taking her team to its first 50-over World Cup win since 2013.

Annabel Sutherland took a career-best 4-31 against England in Melbourne. (Photo by William WEST / AFP)

After putting on a 74-run opening partnership to steer Australia towards victory, opener Alyssa Healy lauded not just the closing win, but the all-round effort of the squad to record such a comprehensive series victory.

“We‘ve had the feeling before of when England win the last game and we get the trophy and it’s not as yahooey,” she said.

“I’s not a warm-up to the world cup but it feels like it to an extent. it’s been a really great team effort. It’s great times heading in to tournament play which we are really excited for.”

Australia's Alyssa Healy made 42 in the final ODI against England (Photo by William WEST / AFP)

Healy said she was looking forward to “putting my feet up” for her quarantine period after a monster summer which included a series against India last September and October, the WBBL, domestic cricket and now the Ashes.

“It’s not the best prep leading in to a World Cup, having 10 days off,” she told Fox Cricket.

“But the tournament comes at the right time for us and we are playing some great cricket leading in.”

Rising star Hannah Darlington, who was selected as a travelling reserve for the World Cup, won’t join the squad however after withdrawing for mental health and wellbeing reasons.

The 20-year-old will be replaced as one of two travelling reserves by Tasmania and Perth Scorchers all-rounder Heather Graham.

Hannah Darlington has withdrawn from the World Cup squad (Photo by Jeremy Ng/Getty Images)