Aaron Finch has taken responsibility for being one of the well-set Australian batsmen to surrender their wicket in a collapse that saw England snare of their biggest one-day victories against their Ashes rival.
Finch said Australia were pleased to have limited England to 8-300 batting first at Old Trafford given they had been 2-200 after 32 overs.
The visitors were well placed at 2-100 after 20 overs, with captain Steve Smith and particularly the recalled Finch batting impressively. 
England spinning all-rounders Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali turned the game in England's favour with combined figures of 5-73 from 20 overs.
While Smith (25 off 33 deliveries) departed to a magnificent catch - beanpole England paceman Steve Finn claimed it one-handed diving at full stretch - Finch (53 off 60), Glenn Maxwell (17 off 12) and George Bailey (25 off 42) departed to dismissals due more to their culpability than being genuinely beaten by the bowlers.
Finch's departure began a stint where Australia lost 7-66 in 18 overs to completely lose their way. They needed Matthew Wade (42 off 41) to take them from 9-172 to be all out for 207, giving England a 93-run victory. Only thrice have England beaten Australia by a greater runs margin in one-dayers.
Finch said it "absolutely" felt like the match was one that they let slip from their grasp, when a win would have given them an insurmountable 3-0 series lead.
"I talked about yesterday it's a nice place to get in and get a big score - and none of us did that today. I put my hand up for that. I got off to a good start and got us into a good position and threw it away. We knew that on that wicket [for] new batters coming in it was always going to be tough," Finch said.
"It was a poor, poor display that none of us went on with it."
Finch said his dismissal, holing out off Rashid on 53, was "sort of out of the blue".
"A little bit of pressure had built up and I tried to take the attack to Adil and it didn't work," he said.
Finch defended Maxwell, who was caught attempting a third consecutive reverse sweep off Ali, and Bailey, who pulled a full toss straight to deep mid-wicket.
"I thought 'Maxi' had a good plan, it's a shot he plays very well, and George just a mis-hit, really," he said.
"I felt nice out there. To be honest, you're not going to get a better wicket to open the batting on. The ball didn't seam, didn't swing, didn't really bounce either. Batting at the top, it was about trying to get off to as positive a start as you can and ... trying to get on top of the run-rate. It's never easy. When they bowled in the right spot it was hard to score. It was tough to score in front of the wicket along the ground. It was just about assessing risk.
"I felt really comfortable out there, but through that middle part I started to get a bit frustrated and a bit tied down.
"It was nice to get some runs but ... it was an opportunity missed to really drive them team into a winning position. I take full responsibility for that."
Finch commended the debut performance of Ashton Agar, who took 1-45 from nine overs in his first international appearance since the two Tests he played at the start of the 2013 Ashes.
Agar would have had two wickets had wicketkeeper Matthew Wade accepted a stumping chance when England captain Eoin Morgan was on 15. He went on to make 62. Finch said there were mitigating circumstances for Wade.
"It was just one of those things. It was a tough chance for 'Wadey'. Any time it spins back through the gate and bounces it's always tough," he said. "No one means to miss a chance or hit one straight up in the air. It's just part of the game."
Morgan hailed the performances of his two spinners, Rashid (2-41 off 10) and Ali (3-32 off 10), and also No.3 batsman James Taylor (101 off 114) for his maiden international century.
"We've certainly spoken about guys going on throughout this series, and today it was a crucial innings," said Morgan of Taylor, who did not score a boundary until his 53rd delivery and notched only five for his entire innings.
"He's very unique, the way he plays. Having played against him a lot in county cricket, he can be annoying to captain against - which is always a good sign, if he then gets runs for us."
The teams will travel to Leeds on Wednesday with Australia 2-1 ahead in the five-match series. The fourth match will be played at Headingley on Friday.