A devastating spell of fast bowling from Brett Lee at Lord’s on Saturday helped Australia to a seven wicket win and an unassailable 4-0 lead in the seven-match one-day series against England.

Lee claimed five for 49 from nine overs to restrict England to just 220 all out from 46.3 overs after they had won the toss in good batting conditions on a sunny morning. It was the ninth time Lee had taken five wickets in a one-day international.

Captain Andrew Strauss continued his good form over the English summer with a top score of 63 in 75 deliveries but he was the only England player to craft any substantial innings.

Australia reached 221-3 in reply with 6.2 overs remaining.

“Our batting hasn’t fired for four games,” Strauss told a news conference. “A few of the guys are low on confidence and one-day cricket is not a game where you can scratch around for too long. You have to play in a positive fashion.

“We have had some partnerships but no telling partnerships and no telling scores. The batting group has got to be better, it is as simple as that.”

Michael Clarke, who stood in as captain in the first three matches when Ricky Ponting took a break in Australia, finished the match with an unbeaten 62, while opener Tim Paine made 51 and Ponting stroked 48.

While Australia will be seeking a 7-0 whitewash after losing the Ashes series 2-1, England need to regain credibility and confidence before the ICC Champions Trophy begins in South Africa later this month.

Lee, who missed the entire Ashes series through injury, made the initial breakthrough when he had Joe Denly caught at first slip for 11. He later bowled Matt Prior (29), Luke Wright (12), Adil Rashid (4) and Stuart Broad (2) with dipping, swinging yorkers in excess of 145 kms an hour.

England lost their last five wickets for just 20 runs in 22 balls. Off-spinner Nathan Hauritz claimed two for 23 from 10 accurate overs that strangled the England run rate.

Strauss was out top-edging a slog-sweep off Hauritz, while Owais Shah was caught for 39 from a Shane Watson full toss that he felt should have been called a no-ball.

“That meant a lot, to take a five-for and to get it at the home of cricket at Lord’s is a very special moment,” Lee said.

“You always treasure the fact you get to play at Lord’s. It is something that is very special in my career.”

“Now being 4-0 up and after winning the series this next game is very important. The chance to win the next three is something that we will be eyeing up but we don’t want to look too far ahead and become complacent.

“It would be easy to think with the series won that we have done the hard work, but the hard work starts now.”

Fast bowler Brett Lee insisted on Wednesday he was ready to make a dramatic return from injury in the fourth Test as Australia look to revive their Ashes campaign.

Lee, the most experienced bowler in Australia’s attack with 310 wickets on 76 Tests, has not featured at all in the first three matches of this Ashes series after sustaining a side injury in the lead-up to the first Test.

But the 32-year-old New South Wales quick was adamant he would be fit to last the pace in the fourth Test, which starts at Headingley here on Friday with Australia 1-0 down in the five-match series.

Asked if he was fit for Test cricket, Lee told reporters at Headingley here on Wednesday: “Yes, 100 percent. I do believe I have done the work. I’ve been bowled eight days straight.

“Most days I’ve bowled back-to-back, morning and afternoon sessions. on Wednesday I bowled practically the whole session and my pace felt really good. I’m 100 percent ready to go.”

With no tour match in between the end of Monday’s drawn third Test at Edgbaston and Friday’s start at Yorkshire’s headquarters, Australia would be selecting Lee ‘cold’ if they recalled him to their side this week.

But the bowler himself, couldn’t see a problem with his lack of recent match practice. “No not really. Hopefully I’ve done everything I can to prove I’m ready to go.

“I’m confident if I was called upon to play I would be able to get through. If it was a different injury, you might think differently. But the way I’ve felt, I’ve done the preparation and it’s been a minor setback.

“Hopefully I’ve passed that, bowling eight days straight and can prove that I can stand up and am ready to go.”

Lee admitted it had been a frustrating experience to be on the sidelines in a series where Australia have yet to bowl England out twice.

“Honestly, it’s been really difficult. You know how much I love playing, you know I’d love to be out there playing,” added Lee, who has not played a Test since December because of foot and heel injuries.

“I was ready for the first Test match and, as I’ve said before I’ve had two muscle strains in 18, 20 years of cricket since I started. It just happened at the wrong time. That’s the way it goes, it’s not always plain sailing.

“You’ve just got to find a way to get through it and I’ve been through a lot worse. I’ve been through different injuries and I’ve always found a way to come back. You saw on Wednesday, I was charging in and bowling rapid.

“All I can do is prove that I am ready to go.”

Brett Lee’s hopes of featuring in next week’s third Ashes Test at Edgbaston suffered a major blow on Thursday as the injury-plagued pace bowler was ruled out of Australia’s tour match against Northamptonshire.

Lee has been sidelined for the first two Tests against England after injuring his side in Australia’s final warm-up match against the England Lions at the start of this month.

With Ricky Ponting’s side trailing 1-0 in the series, the tourists had hoped to include Lee against Northamptonshire to prove his fitness for the Edgbaston clash.

But he was restricted to stretching and jogging exercises at the County Ground on Thursday, while his team-mates prepared in earnest in the nets to face their hosts in a three-day match starting on Friday.

Michael Hussey, standing in as captain against his old county, later confirmed at a press conference that Lee will not be playing.

An Australia team spokesman declined to confirm Lee’s unavailability in Northampton definitely rules him out of an imminent Test return. But the consensus is that there is little chance of him being risked next week, unless in an emergency.

In the 32-year-old pace bowler’s absence in the first two Tests, Australia dominated an opening draw in Cardiff and then lost at Lord’s last week.

One of their main worries has been the form of Lee’s strike-bowling partner Mitchell Johnson, who will play against Northamptonshire in the hope of finding his range in time to help Australia battle back into the five-match series in Birmingham.

Recuperating from a muscle tear, which ruled him out of the first two Ashes Tests, Australian speedster Brett Lee is pinning hope on third Test in Edgbaston to return to the side.

Lee had began fantastically for the Ashes by taking six wickets in the warm-up but the injury played spoilsport.

“Lord’s is out of the question and I just have to continue the small steps in my recovery and hopefully the third Test will be a chance,” Lee said.

“It is frustrating and the timing could’ve been better but there’s no point worrying about it. I have started running again and it felt OK but I know it’s one of those injuries you simply cannot rush, otherwise my tour could be over.”

It was a heartbreak for Lee to get himself injured just ahead of the Ashes but he is relieved that it was not an ankle injury, which he feared could have ended his career.

“I keep saying to myself, thank God it’s not the ankle, because I’ve had five operations on it. I reckon if the ankle had gone again, that may have been the end,” Lee said.

London-based Australian surgeon David Connell is looking after Lee’s recovery process and the paceman has posed confidence in the treatment he is getting.

“I am getting the best possible treatment and David Connell is a highly regarded specialist with these sort of injuries,” he told ‘Daily Telegraph’.

Australia start their Ashes defence on Wednesday without a single frontline bowler who has previous Test experience in England. 

The Australians took swift revenge after losing the Ashes 2-1 in England four years ago by winning the return series in Australia 5-0.

But they have lost Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, and on Monday their most experienced bowler Brett Lee pulled out of the first Test with a muscle tear. Fast bowler Lee has taken 310 wickets in 76 Tests.

Australia’s attack will be led by Mitchell Johnson, who played an important role with bat and ball in their series win over South Africa this year, a result which captain Ricky Ponting said was one of the most satisfying of his career.

“It’s almost 50 Test matches since the 2005 series,” Ponting told a news conference on Tuesday.

“There’s no doubt that there’s a lot of hunger around the group, there’s a lot of desire to build on things I think we started in South Africa. Our level of play over there was exceptionally high and our standards were very high.”

England captain Andrew Strauss, whose team made a flying start to the English summer with successive wins over West Indies, said the home side “were chomping at the bit to get out there”.

“I am very happy where we are with this squad, there’s a nice sort of relaxed excitement about what’s to come,” he said.

Both teams have delayed naming their final XI until Wednesday morning following a final pitch inspection before the first Test match to be staged in Wales.

Australia’s selectors will need to be almost as quick as a Brett Lee yorker after the fast bowler was ruled out of the first Ashes Test less than 48 hours before play is due to start on Wednesday.

Lee, 32, the only bowler in Australia’s squad to have so far played a Test in England, withdrew Monday with a rib muscle side injury.

This also threatens his participation in next week’s second Test at Lord’s and indeed places a huge question mark over Lee’s involvement in the entire five-match series.

He was the pick of Australia’s attack in taking six wickets for 76 runs against the England Lions at Worcester last week, where his pace and command of reverse-swing showed him to be back near his best.

But Australia have been here before. They won a series in South Africa earlier this year when Lee was injured, where the likes of left-arm quick Mitchell Johnson and the bustling Peter Siddle starred.

Now the selectors must decide whether they play their specialist spinner in off-break bowler Nathan Hauritz at Cardiff or opt for an-all seam attack with fill-in spin from the likes of Michael Clarke and Marcus North.

Milked for runs by county batsmen, Hauritz has had a lean time since arriving in England.

But even though the Cardiff pitch may not be as spin-friendly as has been suggested, it will certainly take turn and if Hauritz doesn’t get a Test match here he may well wonder when he is going to play in the series.

Now Australia fans must hope their selection panel show better judgment than convenor Andrew Hilditch did during the 1985 Ashes series in England when, as a Test match opening batsman, he fell so often to a bouncer trap he became known as the ‘happy hooker’.

In captain Ricky Ponting, Australia have one of the world’s great batsmen and their top order looks, if anything, a potentially more reliable source of runs than that of their hosts.

England’s heroes from their 2005 Ashes win, batsman Kevin Pietersen (Achilles) and all-rounder Andrew Flintoff (knee), both enter this campaign under injury clouds.

Their fitness, or lack of it, could prove vital.

Australia came to England this time without a clutch of retired stars in Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Damien Martyn, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath.

So it is not surprising if, to English eyes, this Australia side lacks the swagger of the one that won the last Ashes 5-0 ‘down under’ in 2006/07.

But the question is not are Australia as good as their predecessors, but are they good enough to beat England?

“Any team that loses Warne, McGrath, Hayden, Langer, Gilchrist, Damien Martyn, are not going to be as strong,” Pietersen said on Monday.

But the South Africa-born shotmaker added: “It doesn’t matter who they put out, it’s going to be tough for us to do the business.

“And three months ago they beat South Africa in South Africa so this team is a good team…they are the world champions, the favourites.”

For England, whose top six picks itself, the poser is whether to play just the one slow bowler in off-spinner Graeme Swann or to also field another in either left-armer Monty Panesar or uncapped leg-spinner Adil Rashid.

They’ve already decided against recalling fast bowler Stephen Harmison, who twice found out Australia rising batting star Phillip Hughes with the short ball last week.

Crucially, Harmison’s were well-directed bouncers – a point the likes of Flintoff, swing specialist James Anderson and not to mention Durham’s Graham Onions – would do well to remember.

But former Australia captain Ian Chappell is concerned that Hughes may not be as good as many of his compatriots hope.

“There seems to be this widespread feeling that Hughes is going to be a star,” Chappell said. “Well he’s only played three Tests. He’s got a very unorthodox technique that could come unglued at any time.”

Chappell also said England’s attack gave them the edge. “Generally you go with the team with the best attack.

“At the moment, England have certainly got it.”

Squads:

England (from): Andrew Strauss (capt), Alastair Cook, Ravi Bopara, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Matt Prior (wkt), Andrew Flintoff, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Monty Panesar, Ian Bell, Graham Onions.

Australia (from): Phillip Hughes, Simon Katich, Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, Marcus North, Brad Haddin (wkt), Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Hauritz, Peter Siddle, Stuart Clark, Ben Hilfenhaus.

Umpires: Billy Doctrove (WIS) and Aleem Dar (PAK)

Match referee: Jeff Crowe (NZL).

Australia face an anxious wait over the fitness of fast bowler Brett Lee for Wednesday’s first Ashes Test against England after he suffered a rib injury.

Lee, one of the survivors from the 2005 Australia squad that lost the Ashes 2-1 in England, indicated soreness in the left side of his ribs after last week’s draw with the England Lions where he appeared to bowl himself into contention for the Test team.

The 32-year-old quick was due to undergo a scan later on Monday and the results may not be available until Tuesday morning.

Lee, who has taken over 300 Test wickets, struck six times against the second-string Lions at Worcester.

Prior to this tour, he had been sidelined with foot and heel injuries and so missed the 2-1 series win in South Africa earlier this year where Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle starred in his absence.

Lee has not played Test cricket since December when South Africa beat Australia by nine wickets in Melbourne.

Australia’s national cricket selection committee has admitted it may have mismanaged the veteran pacer Brett Lee after his difficult marriage break-up last year.

Selection committee chairman Andrew Hilditch now says that perhaps Lee should not have been sent to India last October with so little preparation as a result of his personal problems.

“The situation with Brett was extremely difficult, there is no doubt about that and in hindsight I think a lot of people would have handled that differently. But we are dealing with a 300-Test wicket bowler who came to India under-prepared for a lot of reasons unrelated to cricket and paid the price,” The Telegraph quoted Hilditch, as saying.

Hilditch was speaking after Lee revived Australia on the second day of the four-day match against a strong England second XI at Worcester, claiming 5-53 before revealing Australia’s secret plan to exploit reverse swing when the first Test begins in Cardiff on Wednesday.

Lee had seven bad Tests from the eight he played last summer before breaking down during the Boxing Day Test and having ankle surgery, which cost him the tour of South Africa.

In his absence a young and revitalised Australia surprisingly upset the home team in their conditions.

Lee had struggled to make an impact on this tour and his Test place was in doubt until his brilliant afternoon spell against the Lions.

Pace bowlers Brett Lee and Stuart Clark are set to go head-to-head for a place in Australia’s team for next week’s first Ashes Test in Cardiff.

The New South Wales duo have both been selected for the team’s final warm-up match, a four-day contest against the England Lions which starts at New Road on Wednesday.

Peter Siddle has been rested after impressing against Sussex in the tour opener while left-arm quick Mitchell Johnson, the spearhead of Australia’s attack and a sure selection for Cardiff if fit, returns after missing the match at Hove.

However, fellow seamer Ben Hilfenhaus has been omitted while off-spinner Nathan Hauritz, who could only manage one wicket for 158 runs in the draw with Sussex, has been given another chance to press his case.

Ponting though was doing his best on Tuesday to insist that all Test places were stil up for grabs.

“There are absolutely no certainties for the first Test right at the moment,” Ponting said.

“We are still a week away from that first Test match and a lot can happen in that period of time in international cricket.”

The Lions, England’s A side, contains several pace bowlers with Test experience in Stephen Harmison, Sajid Mahmood, Graham Onions and Tim Bresnan. “It’s good to have that calibre of opposition as our last game,” Ponting said. “Their quicks have all played international cricket, so it will be good preparation for us.”

Australia team to play the England Lions at Worcester (July 01-04):

Simon Katich, Phillip Hughes, Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Hussey, Michael Clarke, Marcus North, Brad Haddin (wkt), Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Nathan Hauritz, Stuart Clark.

Mastering English conditions and not fitness issues pose a challenge to Australian paceman Brett Lee ahead of the Ashes series with England, former Test fast bowler Jason Gillespie said on Monday.

Lee’s new-ball potency is under scrutiny after he did not get a wicket in his opening spell in either innings of Australia’s tour warm-up match against Sussex at Hove over the weekend.

Lee played the last of his 76 Tests back in December before undergoing foot and ankle surgery and is working his way back to full fitness.

Despite a month in England for the World Twenty20, Lee has failed to make an impact as he battles for a new-ball bowling spot in the Australian team for the Ashes opener in Cardiff, starting on July 8.

Gillespie, who was dropped at the age of 30 after just three wickets at an average of 100 in the first three Ashes Tests of the 2005 series in England, said Lee had yet to prove himself in English conditions.

He said Lee has struggled on his two previous Ashes tours, claiming 29 wickets in 10 Tests at an average of more than 45 while conceding well above four runs an over.

“There’s no fitness issues with Brett,” Gillespie said.

“Brett’s got to learn to master English conditions. That’s going to be his biggest challenge, not so much his fitness.

“It’s going to be the slower wickets so his pace doesn’t have the same impact.

“He’s not bowling as fast anymore. We know that.”

Lee is one of three Australian pacemen to taken 300 wickets (310) behind Glenn McGrath (563) and Dennis Lillee (355) but he is 32, an age when few Australian fast bowlers have continued to make an impact, the newspaper said.

Australian bowlers sent down 38 no-balls for the Sussex match, with Lee (3-53 and 1-51) the worst offender as he overstepped 14 times including taking a wicket off a no-ball.

The pressure increased on Lee after the match when Australian coach Tim Nielsen endorsed pace bowling rival Peter Siddle for the first Ashes Test.

Lee is competing for a spot with Ben Hilfenhaus, Stuart Clark and Siddle in a pace attack where only Mitchell Johnson seems assured of a place.