Hoggard, here removing Campbell's middle stump, had a good game

Knight, Hussain and Thorpe played strokes that were so awful as to be indescribable and all at times when England were coasting to victory.

Knight plugged a catch to mid on for 50, Hussain badly misjudged a reverse sweep and was bowled for 73 while Thorpe calmly lobbed a catch to long on for 13.

Goodness knows what the likes of Snape, Foster and Kirtley made of it all as they sat in the dressing room waiting to bat!

Those are precisely the errors that are responsible for England's lack of success in one day cricket.

And the concern must be that it was the most experienced players - with 180 caps between them - who fell into the same old trap once again.

Batting order problems

I still have a problem with the batting order and will happily place on the record now my belief that Hussain and Ramprakash will not bat at three and four in the World Cup in 2003.

It is not they aren't good enough, but they can be easily restricted by tightly-set fields because they can't hit the ball over the top. This is an area that Duncan Fletcher has to address quickly.

There were plus points, though. Jeremy Snape, who was made Man of the Match for his tidy off spin, looked thoroughly at home and not phased in the least by his jump from county to international cricket.

He fielded very well, too, and is a useful addition to the team.

Hoggard, in particular, but also Kirtley both used the new ball sensibly and Ramprakash's three wickets were a bonus, although I can't imagine the Australians allowing him to bowl at the end of an innings quite so comfortably.

Up-and-down day for Fozzie

James Foster had a very mixed day. It began well enough with an excellent, snappy stumping to remove Andy Flower.

Then he got away with a bad fumble and still managed to stump Grant Flower two balls later which reduced Zimbabwe to 126 for 5.

Then, horror of horrors, he dropped a straightforward chance as Ebrahim aimed a slog at Hoggard.

It is never easy to catch a skier with a cloudless blue sky as a background, but international 'keepers simply can't afford to miss catches such as that one. Poor man! He must have wanted the ground to swallow him up.

A win is a win, but England get no more than 6 out of 10 for this performance.