England failed to capitalise on their best start of the tour as they crumbled to 155 all out in the fourth tri-series one-day international against Australia at the Gabba on Friday.
After winning the toss and racing to 52 without loss in the 11th over, England's batting collapsed with all 10 wickets tumbling for 103 runs as the innings came to an abrupt end in the 42nd over.
Glenn McGrath and Nathan Bracken took three wickets apiece for 24 runs while Brett Lee captured two wickets and Cameron White one.
Debut opener Mal Loye top scored for England with a run-a-ball 36 while Jamie Dalrymple chipped in with a patient 31 but Andrew Flintoff (27) was the only other batsman to make at least 20 with six players failing to reach double figures.
The tourists could not have hoped for a better start with Loye and Andrew Strauss both hitting early sixes to bring up the England 50 on a perfect batting deck when the wheels suddenly fell off.
Australia dismissed both England openers in successive overs then ripped through the fragile middle order, taking 6-41 to leave the visitors reeling at 93-6.
Loye, Ed Joyce (5), Paul Collingwood (no score) and Paul Nixon (9) were all caught behind, either by wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist or Matthew Hayden at slip, while Strauss (18) fell to an acrobatic catch from Brad Hodge at midwicket.
But England's dismal performance was best summed up by the comical run out of Ian Bell, who was caught short of his ground as White rolled the ball along the ground and into the stumps with both batsmen running in the wrong direction.
Flintoff and Dalrymple were forced to buckle down to steady the innings but threw their wickets away trying to raise the run-rate to leave the Australians perfectly placed for their third straight win of the series.
