Summary England registered a 48-run victory over Australia in the Champions Trophy.
BIRMINGHAM (AP) - Ian Bell s patient 91 and a disciplined bowling performance led by James Anderson helped England beat fierce rival Australia by 48 runs in the Champions Trophy on Saturday, landing an early psychological blow ahead of the Ashes series.
Chasing a competitive but very catchable target of 270 on a benign strip under blue, sunny skies at Edgbaston, the out-of-form Australians struggled to 221-9 to leave their title defense in tatters after just one group match.
Anderson is likely to be Australia s chief tormentor in the five-test Ashes that starts next month and he caused damage with his reverse swing and accuracy here, taking 3-30 and becoming England s leading wicket-taker in ODIs in the process.
"He is so skillful," Australia stand-in captain George Bailey said of Anderson. "To be so accurate was testament to the bowler he is and how important he is to England s team."
Bell had earlier laid the foundations on his home ground, falling just short of a fourth ODI century after sharing a second-wicket stand of 111 with Jonathan Trott (43). England s total of 269-6 was disappointing after such a promising start the team was 168-1 after 33 overs but Australia didn t come close to chasing it down.
These are worrying times for Australia, which was bowled out for just 65 to lose a warmup match against India by 243 runs and was without captain and talisman Michael Clarke because of a nagging lower back injury. Winning the Champions Trophy for a third straight time looks well beyond them but England, which has never won a 50-over ICC competition, must be an outside bet on home soil.
This was the first of a minimum 26 matches across all formats between the old foes over the next nine months, with back-to-back test series really starting to whet the appetite.
That gave this contest some added bite if it was ever needed with both teams looking to make a statement of intent. England did just that.
"It doesn t matter who we were playing today, we just wanted to win," man-of-the-match Bell said. "Whether it was Australia or Sri Lanka wasn t important, it was about getting a good start (to the tournament)."
Bailey, who top-scored for Australia with 55, echoed those sentiments but didn t sound too convincing.
"None whatsoever," he said, laughing, when asked whether the result had any importance ahead of the Ashes. "You want to win every game when it s England vs. Australia. It s a huge rivalry and every game means something.
"But it s not a marker. Well, it might be, but you can only say that in hindsight, really."
The Australians are already up against it in Group A, and they need to beat New Zealand on Wednesday to stand a chance of progressing to the semifinals.
England looks in better shape, although Bell acknowledged the side targeted reaching at least 300 after its solid start.
Trott s departure for 43 heralded a mid-innings collapse, with Joe Root (12), Eoin Morgan (8) and Jos Buttler (1) going cheaply. Bell also departed in that mini-meltdown clean bowled by James Faulkner after a patient 115-ball knock that contained seven fours.
Suddenly England was 213-6, having been 168-1, and with no momentum.
Ravi Bopara (46 not out) and Tim Bresnan (19 not out) provided some flourishes in a belated rally the one and only six of the innings came from Bopara in the penultimate over but there was a fear England had wasted a great opportunity.
That didn t prove to be the case.
Australia s reply never really got going, losing wickets at regular intervals starting with David Warner (9) in the sixth over when he was caught behind off Stuart Broad.
Alastair Cook dropped tough chances off Shane Watson and Phil Hughes, but snagged Watson (24) following an inside edge onto his pads off Bresnan. When Hughes departed for 30, lbw to Root s part-time offspin, Australia was always struggling even with Bailey and Faulkner (unbeaten 54) plugging away.
Anderson claimed the wickets of Mitchell Marsh and Matthew Wade at the start of his second spell and then Starc later to move onto 237 ODI wickets, having jointly held the record with Darren Gough on 234.
The test series, starting on July 10 in Trent Bridge, will be another matter entirely but this will have proved to be a useful exercise in probing for weaknesses and sizing each other up.
The tension was already there going by a skirmish in the 31st over in England s innings between Trott and wicketkeeper Wade, who faced up to the batsman after tripping over his bat while attempting to field a return throw near the stumps. Words were clearly exchanged and the umpires came in to intervene.
They didn t come to blows but this was definitely round one to England.
