Agencies

London, July 10:

Captain Ricky Ponting hit a century to ease Australia to an seven-wicket triumph over England at Lord’s in the NatWest Challenge one-day match. Ponting (111) shared a third-wicket stand of 120 with Damien Martyn, who was 39 not out as his side reached a target of 224 with six overs remaining. Earlier, pace bowler Brett Lee took 5-41 to restrict England to 223-8. Andrew

Flintoff hit 87 in a 103-run stand with Paul Collingwood (34). Australia were in the box seat after taking three early wickets in successive overs, Michael Kasprowicz taking two of them, to leave England 28-3. Kevin Pietersen missed a chance to impress when he fell to Lee and England were in even deeper trouble. Australia showed no such early difficulty as the first four overs went for four overs, with Adam Gilchrist taking six boundaries off Darren Gough and Simon Jones. By the time he edged Flintoff behind in the sixth over, Gilchrist had put England on the back foot with 29 from 20 balls.

Katich, who opened the innings with Matthew Hayden nursing a sore shoulder, failed to capitalise on his patient start, but Australia on course when he fell for 30. England made full use of the new “powerplay” rules, mixing in the mandated blocks of five overs with a close field throughout the innings. But the only real effect of them was to allow Ponting to make quick runs when well set, most obviously with a six off Flintoff and 11 from an over off Harmison. He used an intentional edge off Harmison from the 105th ball to gain his 13th boundary and tie Steve Waugh’s mark of 10 tons as Aussie skipper. Regularly bowling at over 90mph, Lee completed his fourth five-wicket haul in his 111th game. Flintoff did manage to launch two sixes into the Grandstand, Jason Gillespie one victim and Andrew Symonds the other. The arrival of Geraint Jones failed to bring the required acceleration in the face of some tight late bowling from Kasprowicz and Symonds. Lee completed his trick by having Jones caught at deep midwicket and Ashley Giles taken by Ponting.