For the first time in ages, England beat Australia at cricket.

Unfortunately it was between two sides of yesteryear, but it was still a sight to behold at Trent Bridge.

On the second day of an event dubbed the Weekend of Legends, England cruised to a comfortable 33-run victory over Australia in a masters match.

Certainly there were some legends around such as former Australian captain Allan Border and Nottinghamshire hero Derek Randall, as well as some players who have had fantastic careers like Mike Gatting, Graham Gooch, Geoff Marsh and David Boon.

In fact there were mutterings around the ground before the game began that this may be England's only chance to defeat Australia.

Most of the tourists' side on Sunday seemed to agree, seeming fairly certain that the Ashes series would be an uphill struggle for Nasser Hussain's men.

"I hope that England bat well, but I've got a scary feeling that if the Australians get on top, they will be difficult to beat," said former Test captain Kim Hughes.

England's old boys seemed to be in good shape when it came to batting on Sunday though.

There was a fear that they might suffer an early tumble when captain Gooch was dismissed for a duck, caught on his second ball by Tom Moody.

It seemed ironic that Jeff Thomson was bowling, considering that Gooch was his 200th Test victim on his last tour of England back in 1985.

Rare victory

England eventually found their rhythm and scored a respectable 248-8, helped by a memorable 54 for Nottinghamshire's favourite son Randall.

"I think we bowled well, but Derek Randall batted us as only Derek Randall can," said Hughes.

Boon and Dean Jones put in solid performances, but the Australian masters could only muster 215 all out, and that was with their 12th man batting.

Of course, their cause was not helped by a superb five wickets from Dermot Reeve.

The result from an entertaining day's play meant the crowd went home, having witnessed a rare victory over their old rivals, but knowing the real Test starts Thursday.