Elliott upstages Aussies in scratch match

MELBOURNE - Victorian opener Matthew Elliott kick-started his campaign for a return to the national side today in a game designed to give Australia's one-day side some match practice.

While Australia did little to suggest its recent poor one-day form is an aberration, scraping home against domestic cricket's worst limited overs side by two runs, Elliott could not have produced a more timely innings.

The lefthander, who missed the first half of the season due to a knee injury, produced a match high score of 84 as Victoria was bowled out for 269 in the 50th over in reply to Australia's 271.

While Elliott is not a contender to break into the one-day side, the form of opener Matthew Hayden and No.3 Justin Langer was far from convincing during the recent Test series against the West Indies.

Elliott's innings maintains the pressure on Hayden for the upcoming Indian tour and dramatically increased his chances of an Ashes berth later this year when Australia will almost certainly include three openers in its squad.

While Australia's Test form has been impeccable with a world record 15 straight wins, its recent one-day form has been far from spectacular with only two wins in its past eight games.

And Australia has lost its first match in the tri series for each of the past three years, hence the decision to play today's practice match.

An encouraging crowd of more than 7,000 packed into the Junction Oval, many actually sitting along the boundary line giving the game an old fashioned atmosphere as players from both sides were constantly besieged by autograph hunters.

While Australia will start the tri series as unbackable favourites, today's performance was far from sharp.

The Aussies' running between wickets was poor with Adam Gilchrist run out early on for three while several catches went down in the field with Elliott given a life by Ricky Ponting when on 49.

New paceman Nathan Bracken conceded 32 runs in his first six overs but fought back well in his second spell to finish with 1-46 off ten overs, while both Shane Warne and Ian Harvey conceded 61 runs from their ten overs.

On a positive note several batsmen performed well with Ponting making 60 off 59 balls before retiring while Darren Lehmann made 47, Mark Waugh 46 and Andrew Symonds 41. Australian coach John Buchanan was satisfied with the day's proceedings saying the match had served its purpose.

"In terms of our build-up it was useful," he said.

"Going into a one-day series you need to be playing some one-day cricket and this match reminded us of what the one-day game is all about."