Another test

England finally ended a run of 14 consecutive losses to Australia, a sequence which stretched back five years, with a six-wicket victory in yesterdays semi-final at Edgbaston.

It was a convincing win, Michael Vaughans side reaching their target with 3.3 overs to spare, but Australia skipper Ricky Ponting said there were no hard feelings and backed England to beat West Indies or Pakistan in the final.

Ponting said: We will be disappointed for a while about this one, but you cant be too disappointed when you are outplayed and I think we were just outplayed - we were certainly out-bowled and out-batted.

It does not matter who you lose to, it still hurts.

I hope England go all the way now and win it because I would like to see them win it more than the other two sides that are left - good luck to them because they played well and I hope they go and play well on Saturday.

Ponting was also full of praise for rival captain Vaughan, who shrugged off a run of only one half-century in the last 11 outings to score a match-winning 86, beating his previous highest one-day international score of 85.

Vaughan hit nine boundaries in his 122-ball innings before falling just four overs before the victory was sealed and Ponting admitted: I thought he started a bit scratchily and played and missed at a few balls early on, and I thought we had a chance to get at him when Brett Lee first came on, but he certainly played well.

He was nice and positive and played his shots from the word go, and got a few in the middle and got on a bit of a roll and deserved his man of the match.

Delighted as Vaughan was about the victory, which comes just two months after England were dismissed from their own triangular one-day competition by West Indies and New Zealand, he insisted that it would have little bearing on next summers eagerly-awaited Ashes series.

To get through to Saturdays final is a massive achievement from where we were earlier this summer in the one-day game, he said.

There is a one-day game to finish off what has been a fantastic summer for English cricket and we are certainly going down to The Oval excited at another challenge.

I dont think the outcome of this game will have any effect on the Ashes next summer.

Even if we had taken a hammering I still dont believe that the outcome would have any effect on the Ashes - that is five-day cricket and Test match cricket is totally different to one-day cricket and we are just delighted to play so well on the big stage against a very good team.

Skipper Michael Vaughan produced his best-ever one-day display to rid England of their inferiority complex against Australia and book a place in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy.

Vaughan hit a career-best 86 in a comfortable six-wicket victory against the world champions at Edgbaston, having taken 2-42 with the ball and run out the dangerous Andrew Symonds earlier in the day.

Little went wrong for Yorkshires Vaughan, after winning the toss, something of a contrast to his recent one-day international record which has never emulated his Test status and nose-dived even further this summer.

When he scratched around at the start of his innings, scoring only four off his initial 21 deliveries, a second half-century in 11 innings for England this summer looked a distance away against an Australian side, whose winning trot against their Ashes rivals stretched back 14 matches and the best part of six years.

But the 29-year-old, who shared 140 for the second wicket with Marcus Trescothick, hit paceman Brett Lee for six fours in just two overs to get well on the way to humbling the Aussies once again, having been man of the series in a losing Test cause two winters ago.

I am delighted for the team that I got some runs to get us through a big game, said Vaughan, whose average before this game was a paltry 23.5 in 54 internationals.

Statistics dont lie and my TURN TO PAGE 40 stats in one-day cricket still arent impressive but I firmly believe I will turn those around over the next year or so.

To start with I just wasnt playing well, I felt like I was batting with a straw for the first 20 balls.

But these things happen in cricket, you can go out some days and not feel good and get a score and others feel a million dollars and get nothing.

I like the challenge of playing Australia because they are very intense and play like I like the game to be played: they have changed the game a lot over the last 10 years with their style and we respect them for that.

Victory over a side who had won 24 of their previous 27 one-day internationals was quite a turnaround from the woes in midsummer when England failed to reach the final of their own triangular NatWest Series.

They will now face either West Indies or Pakistan in Saturdays final at The Oval and Vaughan claimed: This is a massive achievement from where we were in mid-summer in the one-day game and will give us confidence for the final.

We have had some impressive wins over the past year and a half - we did have a dip this summer - but to beat a truly outstanding Australian team in a semi-final is tremendous for the team.

If we are honest we are still way off them in terms of experience and expertise but it was a one-off game, on a big stage and it was a great effort, so I am very pleased for the boys, they have worked hard.

With England securing their semi-final berth at the weekend with a soggy success over Sri Lanka at Southampton, only 10,000 witnessed a watershed win.

The style in which it was achieved was more impressive, however, coming with six wickets and 21 balls to spare and Andrew Strauss finishing unbeaten on 52.

It left Australian captain Ricky Ponting disappointed with his own team but admitting England were deserved finalists in a major tournament for the first time since the 1992 World Cup.

I hope England go all the way and win it, said Ponting.

I would rather see England win than the other two sides that are left.

It is hard to gauge them on one game, we havent played them for a while, but they certainly played well today, so good luck to them.

The attitude they showed and their skills were very good, I think theyve got what it takes to win.

Whoever you lose to it always hurts, we are disappointed, it was not a very good performance. We were out-played.