Baker was making his first appearance against Australia
Second one-day international, Adelaide
England 355-6 (50 overs): Banton 121, Cox 67, Root 62
Australia 220 all out (44.3 overs): Green 64, Renshaw 63; Atkinson 4-28
England won by 135 runs; series level at 1-1
Tom Banton scored a century and Sonny Baker and Gus Atkinson impressed with the ball as England's wildly inconsistent one-day team hammered Australia to set up a series decider.
Banton scored a fine 121 – pushing his case for selection further with a second ODI hundred – in England's 355-6.
After being knocked over for 131 two days ago in Perth, England's total was their highest in one-day internationals in Australia.
And then their bowlers, who failed to defend 430 against Sri Lanka last month and were undone by an improbable last-wicket partnership against Pakistan, reduced Australia to 29-4 inside seven overs and easily closed out a 135-run victory.
The win ends a seven-match losing run against Australia across formats in Adelaide - and a run of six consecutive defeats by Australia in 50-over cricket away from home.
But, more significantly, it corrects their course after those damaging defeats against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Australia and offers positives amid the frustrations going into the decider on Wednesday (03:30 GMT) in Hobart.
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Will the real England please stand up? Before those defeats in Rawalpindi, Lahore and Perth, England had won three ODI series this year.
This win only adds to the feeling they are extremely difficult to figure out.
Banton was superb and, even more encouragingly, Atkinson and Baker were too.
This England team has often struggled for new-ball wickets and Baker, brought in for Jamie Overton in an attempt to correct that fault, found significant swing. He took the key wicket of Australia captain Mitchell Marsh, taken high at slip by a diving Joe Root, for two.
Atkinson used nip to nick off Travis Head for seven – the second match in a row he has dismissed the Australia left-hander – and also have both Cooper Connolly and Josh Inglis caught behind. Career-best figures of 4-28 are reward for good recent performance that have often gone unrewarded.
England were not perfect. They dropped four catches – first Inglis and then Matt Renshaw and Cameron Green, who made 63 and 64 respectively to drag out Australia's score.
But by the end, Sam Curran had taken two wickets in two balls, including bowling Jack Edwards with his moon ball, in a boost after his poor run.
Green was also out stumped when the ball deflected off Jordan Cox's shin and onto the stumps and Liam Dawson took 2-41 as he was preferred again to Adil Rashid.
These are the performances that suggest England can challenge at next year's World Cup, but plenty more are needed.
Banton's hundred follows his first against Sri Lanka in September
Banton's chance as opener has come courtesy of Jacob Bethell's knee injury. In nine innings, he has scored four fifties and two hundreds. The spot should now be his going forward.
The 28-year-old right-hander was hit on the helmet on 10 by left-armer Spencer Johnson but afterwards attacked Adelaide's short square boundaries with his pull.
A partnership of 137 with Joe Root was steady and important – given Ben Duckett had slashed to point for nine and the recent memory of Perth.
It was Banton's hundred, 67 from 49 balls by Cox and 54 not out by Will Jacks that, with Australia's match-winner from the first ODI, Mahli Beardman, rested, took England to a dominant position, however.
Banton scored around the ground but the majority of his boundaries were pulls into or over the leg side
Cox came in after captain Harry Brook, on five, deflected the ball onto his stumps when trying a ramp to push on the scoring. Jacks joined him when Banton holed out at deep square-leg after one too many of those pulls.
Cox and Jacks were scoring at a run a ball when taking England to 245-4 after 40 overs but together helped their side take 110 from the last.
Cox, after a run of lower scores as he fills in for Jos Buttler, drove, cut, scooped and pulled. A reverse scoop for four off Xavier Bartlett was outrageous.
He has one more chance in this series to push his case further - possibly more if Buttler does not recovery for the January series against South Africa.
"Banton seems to have all the time, all the strokes," former England captain Michael Vaughan said.
"He's got the pull shot, he's got the drive down the ground and he plays spin great. He hasn't looked like he's trying to hard to score runs, he's just batted."
Even Atkinson hit two sixes in the last over on a good all-round day.
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