IT'S just what the cricket world needed. Another one-day international between Australia and England, two teams that must be sick of the sight of each other after three months of battle.
But England has promised that the side that takes on Australia in the Champions Trophy semi-final at Centurion tonight, Melbourne time, will be unrecognisable from the team of ''pussycats'' that whimpered to a 6-1 defeat only a couple of weeks ago.
Somewhere between Heathrow and Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport, cheeky spinner Graeme Swann believes, these kittens found their inner lion.
''Most of that series we were awful and we knew we were awful," Swann said as Australia very nearly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in its last group game against Pakistan, but seized a last-ball victory.
"We talked about playing fearless cricket, but we came across as timid as pussycats. Something has clicked over here. We took confidence from beating Sri Lanka, then Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood came to life against South Africa.
''When you lose six in a row you start to question yourself. Let's face it, they were pretty comfortable defeats as well.''
Swann never misses a chance to stir the pot and he pointed to England's most recent result against Australia - a four-wicket victory in Durham to avoid the humiliation of a whitewash. "You are only as good as your last game and we trounced them at Chester-le-Street," Swann said. "I think we have a hold on them, if anything!''
Australian captain Ricky Ponting was not prepared to claim the psychological advantage. ''You probably wipe the slate clean because you're playing in a different set of conditions,'' he said. ''Both teams have probably got a couple of personnel changes as well. Right through the England series they chopped and changed their side a bit and rested guys here and there. In saying that, I think I'd much rather have won that series 6-1 going into a game like this than lost it 6-1.''
The Australia-England rematch almost didn't happen. Had Australia lost to Pakistan, India could have replaced Ponting's men in the semi-finals on net run rate by chasing down the depleted West Indies' total of 129 in about 20 overs. Had the Australia-Pakistan game finished in a tie, which it very nearly did, the Australians would instead have faced New Zealand in the second-semi-final tomorrow.
''That extra day off might have been nice but we're happy to finish top of our table to tell the truth,'' said Ponting.
Pakistan laboured to a small total of 205, and Mike Hussey (64 in 87 balls) anchored a chase that seemed like a formality until Pakistan's bowlers came to life in magnificent fashion and wickets tumbled in the last 10 overs.
Hussey was toppled by an inswinging yorker from Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, but the off-spinner Saeed Amjal and returned paceman Mohammad Asif did most of the damage as Australia lost 6-47 in 12 overs.
Nathan Hauritz and Brett Lee scrambled a bye off the last ball to seize a two-wicket win. Rarely has such a dull game built to such a thrilling finish.
''That ended up being closer than I thought was possible,'' Ponting said. ''We snuck across the line.''
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