THE fantastical events in Cardiff on Saturday gave way in Bristol yesterday to the reality of exactly the sort of close encounter that may be expected every time England lock horns with Australia over the next three months. But the bottom line was the same for Australia as it has been throughout the most embarrassing week of their cricket history.

In seven days they have lost four one-day games in succession, culminating in a three-wicket win with 15 balls in hand by an England side inspired by two stunning individual performances. Stephen Harmison took five for 33 and Kevin Pietersen bludgeoned 91 not out from 65 balls.

Off the field the touring team have suffered the unwanted diversions of another salacious Sunday newspaper story involving Shane Warne and of an early-hours return to the team hotel by Andrew Symonds, unlike Warne a key member of the one-day side.

Symonds was needed yesterday to play exactly the sort of strong-armed innings of which he, Andrew Flintoff and Pietersen are capable, but he could not take part either in Cardiff or Bristol because he had been suspended by the team management for two games and fined the two match fees that would have come his way.

Hyperbole must be firmly resisted despite all Australia’s largely self-inflicted wounds and for all the excellence of England’s unified team performance in their fourth successive victory over their greatest rivals since January 2003. This was, as Ricky Ponting was quick to emphasise after a game in which his first-ball dismissal, leg-before to a searing 93mph yorker from Harmison, was the defining moment, a much-improved performance by Australia, especially in the field, where they have been so unusually fallible after their two months’ rest from cricket.

Glenn McGrath bowled superbly to make his own points to England’s Test-match opening pair, Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Strauss, their young all-rounder, Shane Watson, bowled with a cool head and good control, and in any case there are still more than four weeks to go before they start the series that is the main objective of their tour, the Ashes. But for the extraordinary power, co-ordination and confidence of hitting by Pietersen that has been seldom seen on this ancient county ground since Gilbert Jessop was in his muscular prime, they would certainly have prevented England from reaching their target of 253 to win.

Pietersen’s 91 not out, 61 of which came from his last 26 balls, with eight fours and four sixes in all, was as remarkable as his batting average after ten one-day innings for England: 162. Despite it, he may yet not start the Test series in a more exalted position than first batting reserve, so the performance that stood out for its long-term significance was that of Harmison. Australia may have retrieved some ground after their humiliation against Bangladesh, but if Harmison bowls as fast and rhythmically as he did yesterday, England will win the Ashes.

To have taken his first five-wicket haul in a one-day international on a pitch much more amenable to the kind of spin and medium-paced bowlers who played so large a part in Gloucestershire’s many one-day triumphs on this ground was an exceptional piece of fast bowling and a performance as loaded with portents for Australia as the thunderclouds that at one point on a memorable afternoon began to gather in the heat-laden air.

Brad Hogg proved to be Australia’s chief wicket-taker on a pitch much better suited to his chinamen than to either Harmison or McGrath, but great bowlers (McGrath has been that without doubt and Harmison may well be on the way to proving himself to be one) can rise above conditions on the big occasion.

Australia find themselves bottom at this early stage of the triangular NatWest Series. They will not lose to Bangladesh again, surely, something that will not bother a team that can count their tour as a further step on the long road towards more consistent parity with the leading cricket nations. In that sense it was a much more significant victory for them than it was a defeat for Australia.

That said, it did much to chip away at the aura surrounding Australia. Invincible they no longer are. England, who play Bangladesh again in Nottingham tomorrow, may feel, by contrast, that they are getting closer to carrying with them the very confidence that Australia have, at least temporarily, mislaid. They feel that they can win any game.

In addition to the two principal performers, Michael Vaughan made a solid fifty, only his 14th from 68 one-day international innings, and Paul Collingwood took a catch at backward point to equal any by Jonty Rhodes. It ended Matthew Hayden’s innings at a crucial moment. England could also claim that they won without being able to call on two first-choice bowlers, the injured Simon Jones and the recuperating Ashley Giles.

England are eager for Giles to return and may yet prefer Jones to Jon Lewis in the longer term, but at least Lewis has had a taste of what it feels like to win under an England cap.