Flintoff plays down Ashes concerns

Martyn's 78 wins him man of the match

England Captain, Andrew Flintoff has played down Englands six wicket loss to Australia in yesterdays one day Champion's trophy match.

"I'm disappointed," Flintoff said.

"One thing in the build-up to the game was people trying to link it to the Ashes. We took this game in isolation, as a must-win game for both sides to stay in the tournament.

"The Ashes will start in three weeks time when we get to Australia."

"I can assure you we take both forms of cricket seriously. We're a proud team, we want to win a game of cricket," he said, referring to the final Group A tie against holders West Indies.

"But we need to improve. It is an exciting time in one-day cricket over the next six months. The chance to go to Australia in the VB series, then the World Cup after that."

"We're not in the business of blaming people. Australia bowled quite well in the middle period and the pitch was quite tricky to play on. We will take it collectively on our shoulders," he said.

"It is a young side, we have got a bit of inexperience. We've to step up as a team if we have the aspirations of doing well later in this winter."

Australian Captain, Ricky Ponting, praised his young bowlers:"Our bowlers did a terrific job, Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson in particular."

"We knew we had to bang the ball in hard and it was great to see those younger guys do the job."

"We realised the wicket was slow and tough to score on, so once we got that first wicket we thought we could put some of their other batters under early pressure.

"And we got a few of them out with some short-pitched balls which was pleasing.

"It was good to get a comprehensive win under our belt and we can take a lot of confidence into the game with India next week.

"Damien Martyn [who scored 78] played brilliantly and really gave us the momentum when we needed it."

Martyn also praised Australia's bowlers. "It was nice to get some runs - you have days when you can't score them so you take days like this," said Martyn.

"We were in trouble early on and there were a few nervous moments but we bowled sensationally and restricted them to the score we wanted."

The England team is now eliminated, having not won a match in the series and with many questioning their commitment to one day cricket. Scoreboard