Johannesburg, Oct. 3: Australia sent out a clear and ominous warning ahead of the 2009 Champions Trophy final with a ruthless nine-wicket win over England in the first semifinal at the SuperSport Park in Centurion near here on Friday.

Ricky Ponting and opener Shane Watson blazed their way to unbeaten hundreds as Australia chased down England’s 257 with 8.1 overs to spare and it was clear from the manner in which the two batsmen went about their jobs that they would leave nothing to chance.

"I certainly learnt the other day (against Pakistan) not to take anything for granted in the game," Ponting said, after ushering his side home in the 42nd over. "That was one thing I stressed to the guys this morning as well. Every ball that we bowl, every ball that we face or every ball that we field, we have got to show a 100 per cent commitment to.

"We probably got away from that a little bit in the later half of the Pakistan game and it almost cost us. I think the guys stuck to their tasks really well and for us to get through and chase that total down with just one down was a really good learning curve for all of us."

Lessons learnt from the collapse against Younis Khan’s side were put into practice against the hapless Englishmen. Andrew Strauss’ men brought their fate on themselves by collapsing to 101/6 in the afternoon. Yet given the way Ponting and Watson kept their focus till the very end, another 50-odd runs would not have troubled them unduly. Admitted Strauss after the game, "We had a game plan and stuck to it. Sometimes these things pay off but today our aggressive approach did not. I thought that on such a good wicket, we were about 50 runs too light. But credit to them, they batted superbly."

No team have ever won the Champions Trophy a second time, but as defending champions, Australia have sent out the clear message that they are here to take back the trophy they won in Mumbai three years ago.

En route to his unbeaten 111 (115b, 12x4, 1x6), Ponting (12, 043) moved into third place on the all-time scorers’ list in 50-overs international cricket behind Sachin Tendulkar (16,903) and Sanath Jayasuriya (13,377). Ponting’s 28th ODI hundred was a display of a batsman in his pomp, showing flawless judgment in his execution of shots, defence and running between wickets. Quite naturally, Watson was pulled along in his captain’s wake. The burly all-rounder smashed his way to a 132-ball 136 (10x4, 7x6) — his third ODI hundred — after Ponting had set the pace. The Rajasthan Royals star grew in confidence and as England’s bowlers faltered, he prospered, blasting a series of big cross-batted sixes towards the stands beyond the mid-wicket boundary.

England looked to have made an early dent with the removal of Tim Paine, but that was the only success they would take away. Ponting and Watson were content to move the ball around in their chase to start with though the Aussie captain cracked a series of crisp boundaries to also make sure the asking rate was always within control.

Other than three lofted shots, every drive, cut or pull Ponting essayed was along the carpet. It was an awe-inspiring display and when he crossed the 12,000-run mark at 68 with a boundary, the batsman gave a cursory wave around before settling back to the job at hand.

Scores: England 257 in 47.4 overs (Bresnan 80, Wright 48, Denly 36; Siddle 3/55, Watson 2/35) lost to Australia 258/1 in 41.5 overs (Watson 136 n.o., Ponting 111 n.o.)