Bell drives England
England's Ian Bell drives one straight down the ground on way to making 91 against Australia on Saturday. PHOTO: AFP
Defending champions Australia held arch-rivals England to 269 for six in their Champions Trophy Group A opener at Edgbaston on Saturday.
Ian Bell made 91 on his Warwickshire home ground and shared a second-wicket stand of 111 with county colleague Jonathan Trott (43) after England captain Alastair Cook won the toss.
At 168 for one in the 34th over, England were looking at a score in excess of 300.
But Australia pegged them back before an unbroken seventh-wicket stand of 56 between Ravi Bopara (46 not out) and Tim Bresnan (19 not out) bolstered England's total.
And they could yet have enough runs if Australia, unchanged from their 243-run warm-up defeat against India, bat as badly as they did in being dismissed for just 65 in Cardiff on Tuesday.
Clint McKay took two wickets for 38 runs in his maximum 10 overs and James Faulkner, one of three Australia left-arm seamers, two for 48.
All-rounder Shane Watson made the initial breakthrough for Australia when he had Cook caught behind for a fluent 30.
Ahead of next month's Ashes series in England, there was a flare-up when angry Australia wicketkeeper Matthew Wade thought Trott had impeded him as he tried to gather a wayward return.
Sri Lankan umpire Kumar Dharmasena intervened to calm the situation.
Much later, Trott was caught behind by Wade after chasing a wide ball from Starc.
South Africa-born Trott, often criticised for slow scoring, took 56 balls over his runs with a lone four.
Bell, who his seven fours, had made just three hundreds in his previous 130 one-day internationals.
And the 31-year-old was denied a fourth when Faulkner bowled him with a full length delivery.
Not for the first time, England came unstuck during the batting powerplay which on Saturday yielded a return of 23 for two, both those wickets lost on 189.
Eoin Morgan was then bowled by McKay and two balls later Jos Buttler, fresh from his 16-ball 47 not out against New Zealand on Wednesday, played on to Faulkner for one.
England had to wait until the penultimate over to see Bopara strike the first six of the innings off the expensive Starc (one for 75).
Australia remained without captain Michael Clarke, still sidelined with a recurrence of a longstanding back injury.
Twenty20 skipper George Bailey continued to lead the team in Clarke's absence.
This was the first match in a Group A also including New Zealand and Sri Lanka, who meet in Cardiff on Sunday.
In Group B, India have already beaten South Africa and West Indies have defeated Pakistan.
The top two teams from each group will go through to the semi-finals, with the final at Edgbaston on June 23.
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