AUSTRALIA are backing England to go on to win the ICC Champions Trophy after losing their one-day stranglehold over their arch rivals yesterday.

England finally ended a run of 14 consecutive losses to Australia, a sequence which stretched back five years, with a six-wicket victory in yesterday's semi-final at Edgbaston.

It was a convincing win, Michael Vaughan's side reaching their target with 3.3 overs to spare, but Australia skipper Ricky Ponting said there were no hard feelings and backed England to beat West Indies or Pakistan in the final.

"We will be disappointed for a while about this one, but you can't be too disappointed when you are outplayed and I think we were just outplayed - we were certainly out-bowled and out-batted," he said.

"It does not matter who you lose to, it still hurts. I hope England go all the way now and win it because I would like to see them win it more than the other two sides that are left - good luck to them because they played well and I hope they go and play well on Saturday.''

Ponting was also full of praise for rival captain Vaughan, who shrugged off a run of only one half-century in the last 11 outings to score 86, beating his previous highest one-day international score of 85.

Vaughan hit nine boundaries in his 122-ball innings before falling just four overs before the victory was sealed and Ponting admitted: "I thought he started a bit scratchily and played and missed at a few balls early on, and I thought we had a chance to get at him when Brett Lee first came on, but he certainly played well.''

Delighted as Vaughan was about the victory, which comes just two months after England were dismissed from their own triangular one-day competition by West Indies and New Zealand, he insisted that it would have little bearing on next summer's eagerly-awaited Ashes series.

West Indies and Pakistan meet in the other semi-final at Hampshire's Rose Bowl today. Saturday's final is at The Oval.