• Australia v England, World Twenty20 warm-up, Colombo

England beat Australia in World T20 warm-up

Eoin Morgan hit a rapid 30 for England © PA Photos

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England's recent five-match ODI series against Australia was generally condemned as so inconsequential that it is quite possible to argue that this warm-up match between the Ashes rivals ahead of World Twenty20 had considerably more significance. It fell England's way, by nine runs, an edgy win only for as long as Mike Hussey remained at the crease for Australia.

Victory gave England, the defending champions, immediate impetus and left Australia, whose T20 ranking briefly fell below Ireland's earlier this month, still searching for a solution.

England's top six did not include a single player who could be regarded as a regular in the Test side - Kevin Pietersen, who in different circumstances might have claimed that, is only in Sri Lanka for a commentary stint for ESPNStar - but they skipped to 172 for 6 in their 20 overs with Alex Hales (52 off 38) and Luke Wright (35 off 29) both prominent.

Hales, arguably the chief beneficiary of Pietersen's absence, is one of several young England players without much of a grounding on the subcontinent but his half-century took England to 110 for 3 with 34 balls left before becoming one of two victims for Brad Hogg, at 41 the oldest player in the tournament.

That Australia got so close owed much to Hussey, who almost pulled off a game-changing over when he struck Danny Briggs, the Hampshire left-arm spinner on his first senior tour, for 6-6-6-4 off successive balls after Briggs' first three overs had cost only 15. But Stuart Broad returned to have Hussey (71 off 51) lbw to leave Australia 32 short with 19 balls remaining and their challenge petered out.

Broad's intervention was something of a personal relief as his first over at Nondescripts CC in Colombo had included four wides. Shane Watson (37 off 26), Australia's other main batting success, was bowled by Graeme Swann.

Wright's success at No. 3, to follow a fine domestic season for Sussex in limited-overs cricket, continued a resurgence that began in Australia's Big Bash at the turn of the year. He is now over fears that a knee tendon injury might have put an end to his career.

"There are other guys around the counties I know have been struggling heavily with that sort of injury and who have had similar treatment to me - and it's just not worked," he said. "My game is normally based on energy, running around, buzzing around. Suddenly for the first time, I couldn't really do that and I felt like an old man - it probably threatened everything I play for. But I went off to Sweden for an operation, and luckily it's been fine since then."

David Hopps is the UK editor of ESPNcricinfo

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