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Elmo Rodrigopulle reporting from Australia...

MELBOURNE, Saturday - A dream spell of controlled pace bowling by Brett Lee steered Australia to an exciting five-run win over England in the second of three Victoria Bitter one-day finals at the MCG, yesterday.

With this victory Australia end a successful season. They beat England 4-1 in the Orange Ashes Test series and now carry away the Victoria Bitter Cup also beating their old foes England.

England looked on course for an upset triumph at one stage and it looked as though there could be a third final in Adelaide. It was then that Lee came on to perform his magical spell and halt England in their tracks and give his side a memorable victory.

Lee finished with the magnificent figures of 5 for 30 and was adjudged the Player-of-the-Match and Series. He bowled magnificently throughout the VB tourney and was greatly instrumental in Australia winning the championship.

England who were thrashed in the first final with the game ending in just 74 deliveries, came out fighting in this game and with some clever bowling and good fielding restricted Australia to 229 in their 50 overs. It was a blistering innings of 71 unbeaten runs by left-hander Bradley Hogg in 77 balls that paved the way for an Australian recovery after somewhat of an early collapse. Hayden the, opener made a slow, but valuable 60 early on.

Of the England bowlers Caddick once again bowled a nagging length and was rewarded with 2 for 23 and Ronnie Irani chipped in with 3 for 46.

When England began the run chase, they lost Trescothick at 8 for no score. Two more wickets went down while the score moved to 20 and it looked like curtains for them. Two good knocks by their two elder statesmen in skipper Nasser Hussain (28) and Alec Stewart (60) saw them on the road to an unlikely win.

'Player of the Ashes series' Michael Vaughan held the early batting together with a well played 60. It was then that Lee came on to knock the stuffing out of the England batting. England lost 4 wickets for 8 runs in that spell and from there onwards were struggling to finally lose a match that they could well have won by 5 runs.

This was Australia's 13th win in a row against England. With this win, the Aussies proved that they will be a force to be reckoned in defending the World Cup which they won in England in 1999.

Champion leg-spinner Shane Warne played his final one-day on his home ground and before his home spectators. Although he failed to score being out in the first ball, he bowled fairly well to take the vital wickets of Michael Vaughan and Alec Stewart.

He finished with 2 for 58. At the end of the game he was carried off the field by all his team mates. He had a good run in the limited overs game.

Australia will miss Shane Watson for the World Cup. He is suffering from stress fractures of his back and will be replaced by Ian Harvey. Michael Bevan suffered a groin injury during his innings and was stretchered. His playing in the World Cup is also uncertain.

 Australia
 A.Gilchrist c Anderson b Flintoff           26
 M.Hayden c sub (Shah) b Irani               69
 R.Ponting c Flintoff b Caddick               1
 D.Martyn c Stewart b Caddick                11
 M.Bevan retired hurt                        10
 A.Symonds b Irani                            8
 B.Hogg not out                              71
 S.Warne c & b Irani                          0
 B.Lee c Blackwell b Anderson                18
 A.Bichel not out                            11

 Extras (b-3 w-1)                             4

 Total (for seven wickets, 50 overs)        229
   
 Fall of wickets: 1-39 2-40 3-56 4-98 5-147 6-148 7-196
   
 Did not bat: B.Williams
   
 Bowling: Caddick 10-2-23-2, Anderson 9-0-57-1, Flintoff
10-0-56-1, Blackwell 10-0-32-0, Irani 10-1-46-3, Vaughan
1-0-12-0 (w-1)
   
 England
 M.Trescothick c Bichel b Lee                 0
 N.Knight c Symonds b Lee                     5
 R.Irani c Symonds b Williams                 7
 M.Vaughan c Ponting b Warne                 60
 N.Hussain b Hogg                            28
 A.Stewart c Bichel b Warne                  60
 P.Collingwood not out                       25
 A.Flintoff b Lee                            16
 I.Blackwell c Martyn b Lee                   1
 A.Caddick b Lee                              4
 J.Anderson run out                           0

 Extras (lb-7 w-4 nb-7)                      18

 Total (all out, 49.3 overs)                224
 Fall of wickets: 1-8 2-18 3-20 4-88 5-151 6-182 7-216 8-218
9-224

 Bowling: Lee 9.3-0-30-5 (nb-3, w-1), Williams 10-1-46-1
(w-1), Bichel 10-0-42-0 (nb-2, w-1), Hogg 10-1-41-1, Warne
10-0-58-2 (nb-2 w-1)
   
 Result: Australia won by five runs to win series 2-0
   
 Player of the match: Brett Lee   
 Player of the series: Brett Lee

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