Ricky Ponting prickly as England threaten to seize bragging rights

England are one 50-overs victory away from dominating Australia in all three forms of the game. If they win at Old Trafford on Sunday, they can add the NatWest Series to last summer's success in the Ashes Test series and their defeat of Australia in the final of the World Twenty20. It all takes some believing, certainly for Australia's captain, Ricky Ponting. Ponting has been used to beating England for much of his career, so the suggestion from a fellow Australian that England were on the verge of winning "the bragging rights" was hard to take. "If that's what you think, that's fine. Have a look at our head-to-heads in Test cricket, one-day cricket and Twenty20 cricket and tell me who has the bragging rights," he said. As Ponting's eyes narrowed and he thought back over cricket history, for a moment one imagined that Don Bradman might even get a mention. "Times have moved on," suggested England's captain, Andrew Strauss, although he was wise enough to add: "Ultimately this series will be decided over five games. Our 6-1 defeat against Australia last summer is fresh in our minds and we want some form of revenge." What is incontestable is that England's winning run goes on. That is 10 wins in all competitions, going back to the start of the World Twenty20, and seven successive wins in 50-overs cricket, their best run for 13 years. They thought on their feet as they restricted Australia to 239 for seven, recognising that there was no swing to be had, switching to bowling most deliveries cross-seam and hunting bounce and skid instead. Stuart Broad's rearing delivery to have Michael Clarke caught at short-leg was the highlight of his four for 44. Strauss could also draw satisfaction from his 51 from 56 balls at the top of the order. He was reminded that he had described himself not so long ago as "a stodgy opener," and almost seemed surprised by his own analysis. "We are all trying to explore the limits of our game in practice," he said, "and by doing that we are discovering that maybe we can do things differently than we have in the past." "I don't think we have been caught off guard," Ponting said. "We know what England are capable of. It is up to us to turn the tables pretty quickly. They are more confident than us and at the moment they are playing clever cricket." England won with nearly five overs to spare, surviving a minor wobble which saw three wickets fall for 19 in four overs. Two of the wickets fell to Doug Bollinger, who took three for 46 and was comfortably Australia's most threatening bowler.