World beaters, not yet champions

Vaughan, following a wretched run of form with the bat, could do no wrong at Edgbaston as he won the toss, took two key wickets with his occasional off spinners and completed a neat run-out as the Australians were restricted to 259-9.

Vaughan then anchored his side to victory with a well-paced 86, his best score in one-dayers.

He and opener Marcus Trescothick (81) put on a rapid 140 for the second wicket to wreck Ricky Ponting’s tactic of sweeping England away with a battery of pace bowlers.

Andrew Strauss sealed the win with an impressive 52 not out off 42 balls in his first match against the Australians. Put in and seeking to win the title for the first time, the world champions never looked at their best, with Damien Martyn top-scoring with 65.

England have never reached a Champions Trophy final. West Indies and Pakistan meet in the second semi-final on Wednesday, with the final at The Oval on Saturday.

Vaughan, a fine test technician but struggling to adapt to the shorter game, found the perfect foil in Trescothick.

The left-hander’s aggression allowed Vaughan to play an innings based on his classic technique. So often before he has over-improvised. He was still sticking to rotating the strike when Trescothick smashed Glenn McGrath out of the attack with four boundaries off the ninth over.

When Vaughan did attack, however, he did so with devastating precision.

The 15th over of the innings, from Brett Lee, was to cost 18 as Vaughan clattered him through the covers repeatedly and then whipped him over mid-on.

The England captain smashed six boundaries off 12 deliveries from the fastest bowler in the world.

Trescothick fell in the 32nd over and Vaughan continued until near the end before he toe-ended an attempted pull off Lee straight up in the air.

Lee, brought into the team to intimidate England, ended bruised and battered after taking two for 65 off 8.3 overs. England, who had come close to an upset against Australia in the 2003 World Cup, based their hopes on the growing stature of pace bowler Steve Harmison and all-rounder Andrew Flintoff. Neither, though, really featured.

Feasting on some short-pitched bowling, Australia cruised to 96-2 after 20 overs only for Vaughan to turn to left-arm spinner Ashley Giles — considered by many as the team’s weak bowling link — while serving up his off spin from the other end.

Giles strangled the scoring before completing figures of 1-40. His dismissal of Ponting, who misjudged the flight and chipped to long on after making 29, was a key moment.

Vaughan, however, trumped Giles after Australia had set the platform for an end-of-innings attack.

They had reached 189-3 with just over 11 overs to go before Vaughan bowled the lunging Darren Lehman to end a 75-run stand, ran out Andrew Symonds off his second delivery as the batsman tried to regain his ground, and then had Martyn caught in the deep.

BRIEF SCORES

Australia: 259 for 9 off 50 overs (D Martyn 65, M Clarke 42, D Lehmann 38, A Gilchrist 37; D Gough 3/48, M Vaughan 2/42) lost to England: 262 for 4 off 46.3 overs (M Vaughan 86, M Trescothick 81, A Strauss 52 n.o.; B Lee 2/65)