All Australia will know that this will be the toughest of summers after England caught the tourists on the back foot in every facet of the Twenty20 game in their first meeting of the season.

The tourists may dismiss this defeat by 100 runs as just a "bit of fun" in a form of the game they are novices at. But what was significant for the summer of cricket ahead was the manner of the defeat.

England exuded an energy with bat and ball which simply swept Australia aside, just as they had done when the sides last met at Edgbaston in the ICC Trophy in 2004.

In scoring 179-8, England made the highest total in Twenty20 at the Rose Bowl. Then they hardly bowled a bad ball as Australia collapsed from 23-0 to 79 all out, looking like a side as vulnerable as any when severe pressure is applied.

Jon Lewis, on debut, was outstandingly accurate for his four wickets, but the pick of the bowlers was that old fox, Darren Gough, bowling as quickly as he has for a long time and using all his great experience. He took three wickets and precipitated the collapse by grabbing Adam Gilchrist (15) and Matthew Hayden (six) in consecutive balls.

The weak Australian batting performance was partly a result of having to go for their shots indiscriminately because of England's large total. It was founded on three fabulous one-day innings of differing character by Marcus Trescothick (41), Kevin Pietersen, 34 in 18 balls, and Paul Collingwood, 46 from 26 balls.

Trescothick anchored the innings beautifully and drove brilliantly through cover; Pieterson's awesome power visibly shook the Australians, and Collingwood began with nudges and ended by striking Gillespie all over the pitch.

The innings of Trescothick and Collingwood were especially significant as their poor form in the ODIs in South Africa, where they failed to make a fifty between them, was a major factor in England losing the series 4-1. They are such skilled exponents of the one-day game that their failure was difficult to understand, though, in Trescothick's case, it may have been down to fatigue at the end of a long tour. A jaded Andrew Strauss also failed to make a fifty in the seven games.

England won the game at the Rose Bowl with four of the five major performances coming from players unlikely to feature when the 1st Test starts at Lord's on July 21: Collingwood, Lewis, Gough and Pietersen, though the latter's phenomenal skill and power suggest he could feature at some stage in the Test series. The fact that the big guns, Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff, contributed little to the win is suggestive of all-round strength.

For Australia, there are already a few scars to heal before the teams meet again on Sunday in the NatWest series. Jason Gillespie's four overs cost 49 runs and he has been in poor form in Test matches of late; Brett Lee bowled fast but was expensive; none of the batsmen made any runs, and there were far too many misfields as pressure told.

They will expect to do better in the more familiar environment of 50-over cricket, but, most of all, they will know that they must match this youthful English side's energy and will to win.

England: MP Vaughan (capt), ME Trescothick, GO Jones, AJ Strauss, A Flintoff, KP Pietersen, PD Collingwood, VS Solanki, J Lewis, D Gough, SJ Harmison.

Australia: RT Ponting (capt), AC Gilchrist, ML Hayden, A Symonds, MJ Clarke, MEK Hussey, DR Martyn, B Lee, JN Gillespie, MS Kasprowicz, GD McGrath.

13 Jun, 2005