The phoney war is over

The Sun celebrates England's Twenty20 triumph © Getty Images

After months of the phoney war, the first skirmish in this summer's battle for the Ashes produced a result which galvanised the most sceptical English writers into a bout of chest-thumping. And even Darren Lehmann, making his commentary debut for Sky Sports after being ditched by the Australians, admitted by the end of yesterday's Twenty20 meeting that his former team-mates had "a battle on their hands".

And while both captains dismissed the significance of the result - Ricky Ponting said it was "a bit of a laugh" and Michael Vaughan called it "a bit of a lottery" - what was not in doubt was that England had shown that they were not about to slip quietly into their role as perennial pushovers.

The Mirror set the tone with "We won the Bashes", before Mike Walters opened up a new front. "It wasn't the Test series, and maybe the Aussies are still short of a gallop after swaggering into the country barely a week ago ... to describe Australia's four-man pace attack as pie-throwers at such an early stage of their tour would be premature, not to mention a red rag. But Gillespie, Lee, McGrath and Mike Kasprowicz shipped 139 runs in just 14 overs between them, and Messrs Pukka, Kipling, Bentos and Ginster could scarcely have fared any worse. In the field, the Aussies were no more accomplished, fumbling more than teens in the back row of your local cinema on a Saturday night."

The Sun's John Etheridge also savoured the moment. "Can England count this win towards the Ashes? The Aussies - are they Bangladesh in disguise? Is this the worst Twenty20 side ever to visit these shores? Go on, have some fun and enjoy the moment. It might not happen too often."

"Australia will forever insist it was just a bit of fun, but it was nothing of the sort," wrote David Hopps in The Guardian."The moment Australian green and gold splashed on to the outfield for the inaugural Twenty20 international in England, the scent of an Ashes kill was unmistakable. First blood, because first blood it definitely was, went to England. It was not a Test match, it was not even a 50-overs international. In the great scheme of things it may well amount to diddly squat. But as an indication that England are bursting for the challenge ahead it was irrefutable."

In The Times, Simon Barnes was on cloud nine. "England beat Australia . . . hang on, let's have that again, only slowly. England . . . beat . . . Australia . . . by . . . 100 . . . runs ....God, it was a one-sided bore. Might as well have been playing Bangladesh," he beamed, before removing his tongue from his cheek and adding: "The sun shone and the beer flowed and England looked into Australia's eyes and didn't blink. So despite all the nonsense that went down last night, the summer's dreams need not be abandoned just yet."

In The Independent, Angus Fraser warned that people should not get too carried away with the result, but pointed out: "Those who feel that a 20-over slog on a Monday evening will have no bearing on the Ashes overestimate the self-belief of cricketers."

"Let's get the excuses out of the way," said Simon Briggs in The Daily Telegraph. "As the Australians have said all week, yesterday's Twenty20 international was just the tickling contest before the boxing match proper. It was a light-hearted bit of fun. Australia, of course, will play this result down. If the boot had been on the other foot, the phrase "opening up old wounds" might have made an appearance. But yesterday was a case of new wounds, inflicted on Australian pride and - when Andrew Flintoff came on to bowl - all over Brett Lee's body."