ENGLAND dropped Hampshire’s Danny Briggs from their T20 side before losing their three-match series against Australia with a heavy defeat in Melbourne.

Briggs was replaced by Kent off-spinner James Tredwell after conceding the worst figures of his T20 career (4-0-53-0) in the opening match in Melbourne.

But it made no difference to the result, with England losing by eight wickets, with 31 balls to spare.

Tredwell (3.5-0-36-1) was hit for the winning runs as former Hampshire batsman George Bailey blasted an unbeaten 60 from just 28 balls.

With England 2-0 down, the last match of the tour in Sydney tomorrow morning will now be a dead rubber.