The cliché that New Zealand are the one side capable of standing up to Australia took a hammering at the Oval, where they lost for the seventh time in a row in one-day internationals against their Antipodean neighbours.

Australia will now play either Sri Lanka or England in Tuesday's semi-final at Edgbaston, which should at least bear less of a resemblance than this game to the walkovers against the tournament minnows.

Set 199 to win, Australia wobbled briefly when they lost the early wicket of Adam Gilchrist but afterwards never looked like losing and won by seven wickets with 12.4 overs to spare.

New Zealand had a hapless, defeated air as they watched Matthew Hayden bully them around for his 47, Damien Martyn stroke the ball elegantly through the covers for 60 not out, then Andrew Symonds brutally finish the game with 71 not out from 47 balls.

Symonds' spectacular hitting included four huge sixes, the first one to get off the mark and bring up the hundred, the last one a powerful blow down the ground off Kyle Mills to take the teams level.

But an Australian victory was almost inevitable after they had restricted New Zealand to 198-9 on an Oval pitch that favoured strokeplay with a fast outfield and short boundaries on one side.

Although the world champions bowled well, with Glenn McGrath and Michael Kasprowicz outstanding for their three wickets apiece, New Zealand did not look the same side that so easily beat England and West Indies earlier this summer.

Their professionalism and competitive edge were nowhere in sight as they collapsed to 89-7, and only their long tail saved them from an ignominiously low total as number nine Brendon McCullum (47) and number 10 Daniel Vettori (29*) took the score to 198-9.

This was well below par for such a strong batting line-up whose demoralised mindset against the world champions was particularly evident in two key dismissals, the most important being the wicket of Stephen Fleming.

The New Zealand captain had been fluent and dominant for his 29 but was in a position of responsibility after the fall of three wickets for 49 runs.

But instead of shoring up the innings, Fleming fell to a weak mistimed pull off Kasprowicz to plunge New Zealand further into crisis at 49-4.

The second dismissal that spoke volumes about the Black Caps' panicked state of mind was the farcical run out of Craig McMillan (18), when Chris Harris sent him back to the non-striker's end from the middle of the pitch.

McMillan had been presiding over something of a recovery in the mid-innings period and his wicket cost New Zealand important momentum.

The seeds of New Zealand's defeat were sown with their paranoid ramblings before the game about Australian mind games.

Their comments spoke volumes about their double-edged relationship with their 'Big Brother' neighbour, a curious mixture of reluctant admiration and prickly resentment.

Credit must also go to McGrath who momentarily looked a shadow of his former self as Fleming and Astle got the innings of to a flying start, but he came back with three wickets for three runs in 19 balls, as normal business resumed for Australia.

Australia: RT Ponting (capt), AC Gilchrist, ML Hayden, DR Martyn, DS Lehmann, A Symonds, MJ Clarke, S Watson, MS Kasprowicz, JN Gillespie, GD McGrath.

New Zealand: SP Fleming, (capt), NJ Astle, HJH Marshall, CL Cairns, BB McCullum, DL Vettori, SP Styris, JDP Oram, CZ Harris, K Mills, C McMillan.

16 Sep, 2004