England's new young attack takes battering

It was nothing more than a routine attempt by a slow bowler to field the ball off his own bowling. It happens several times in most one-day games but because the fall led to Shane Warne's immediate future being in doubt, it has thrown Australian cricket into a spin.

Dislocation of the right shoulder of the greatest spin bowler the game has seen, overshadowed another comprehensive Australian victory over England and rendered what remained of this match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground incidental.

When the injury occurred, Australia were in total control of this second game in the VB one-day series. Ricky Ponting's side were giving England another lesson in how to play cricket. Such teachings started in the Ashes Test series and are continuing under lights and in coloured clothing.

The one good thing about watching this great side play at such close quarters is that Nasser Hussain's team should leave their three-month tour of Australia as the best educated group of cricketers in the world. After Friday's tutorial in Sydney on how to chase a score, yesterday's lecture was on the art of posting one.

Such well-spent time should have prepared Hussain's side well for what are bound to be the most competitive international matches that take place in Australia this winter – England v Sri Lanka. The first of these eagerly awaited games – Sri Lanka were hammered by Australia 'A' even more comprehensively than England on Saturday – takes place in Brisbane tomorrow and the prospect of watching a contest is exciting every Englishman Down Under.

However, Hussain, who said yesterday in his Sunday newspaper column – after suggestions he was to resign as captain following the World Cup – that any decision over when he stands down will be for the rest of the side not himself, does not see it as a relief to be not playing Australia.

"I suppose in theory our pressure games come up now," he said. "In the last few weeks nobody has expected us to beat Australia and these, for both us and Sri Lanka, are the pressure games. We have to make sure we put the baggage of what has gone on so far this winter behind us and not take any bad vibes into the Sri Lanka game."

From the first ball at the MCG yesterday one feared the worst for an inexperienced England side. Adam Gilchrist smashed James Kirtley's initial delivery through the covers for four and the Aussies were off. Opening the bowling with him was not Andrew Caddick but the young Lancashire fast bowler, James Anderson.

Following the decision to form this pairing – and Hussain stressed at the end of the game that Caddick was dropped, not unfit – it is difficult to see that the Somerset paceman has much future as an England cricketer. With the Ashes gone and Caddick consistently failing to give England's bowling the leadership it requires, the selectors appear to have decided to try to find a bowler who can. And good on them.

The fact that Kirtley and Anderson were clattered all around this huge stadium during the early exchanges was as much to do with the magnificent batting of Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting – who came in after Matthew Hayden had fallen to Kirtley for four – as poor bowling. Up until yesterday, no Australian had scored 100 against England at this ground in one-day cricket. The ease with which these two passed that milestone made it hard to believe.

With a bowling line-up which had the ring of a county attack about it, England were always going to struggle to keep Australia in check on a flat wicket, and in 35 degrees of heat. Ponting and Gilchrist were ruthless and between them they put on 225 in 35 overs, which is the highest partnership in one-day cricket by any side in Australia. The way they struck the ball was as crisp and clean as any you could wish to see.

It is not often that a Gilchrist innings is outgunned, but yesterday's was by the Australian captain. His first six was the most dismissive. Kirtley, bowling from the members end, let go of a perfectly respectable length ball only to see Ponting pull it off the front foot into a building site, where a new stand is in the process of being constructed, 90 metres away. As it was a Sunday the workmen were off but by the end of their respective innings – which contained seven sixes and 21 fours – the crowd were calling for hard hats.

"With a young, inexperienced bowling line-up against two world-class players, who played it perfectly, we stuck at it pretty well and in the end we even managed to rein them in a little bit" was Hussain's account of Australia's innings of 318 for 6.

Chasing such a total was always likely to be beyond England and the slim chance they had was not helped by donating Australia three wickets with run-outs. The most culpable was Ronnie Irani, who turned like a battleship before being run-out diving to make an easy two. The Essex all-rounder has now scored 0 and failed to take a wicket, or bowl his quota of overs in England's two one-day games so far.

The 31-year-old has had some fun with the crowd and is becoming a bit of a character for his fooling about. However, by playing the fool you sometimes run the risk of looking the fool. And but for another good innings from Nick Knight and a partnership of 72 between Ian Blackwell and Craig White, this is what England would have looked. It is also, since Merv Hughes, not what the professors do.