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THERE might not have been much riding on it but the interest during the final passages of play at the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday confirmed there will be little to choose between England and Australia when they meet in the final of the Carlton and United Series, which begins here on Wednesday.

Australia won a mainly dull match pretty comfortably in the end, by four wickets with three overs to spare, but England were without Darren Gough when they most needed him, towards the end of the match. Alec Stewart had spoken long and hard with Gough just before Australia's mid-innings mini-collapse, after which he retired to the dressing-room as a precautionary measure for his tweaked left hamstring.

Dean Conway, the England physiotherapist, said he had no real concerns and that after ice treatment and rest, the stiffness in the hamstring should go. Conway said he would reassess the situation in the next 24 hours but he did not sound convinced and Gough's uncharacteristically unhappy face as he walked from the field suggested worse. Should the injury rule him out on Wednesday, questions will be raised about England's key cricketer playing in a meaningless match after three months of constant slog.

Earlier in the day England won the toss again and this time sensibly chose to bat first on another grassless and dry pitch. Australia rested Glenn McGrath - which rubbed salt into the Gough wound - and gave a game to Michael Kasprowicz, who appeared nervous at first and gave Stewart and Graeme Hick juicy half-volleys to kick start their innings. Nick Knight had gone quickly to a lovely in-swinger from Adam Dale and Hick followed immediately after his boundary. Dale has posed problems all through the series and England are in urgent need of an answer to his accurate and crafty medium-pacers.

The best of the batting came from Mark Ealham and Mark Alleyne, who scored quickly when runs were desperately needed and gave England an acceptable total to defend.

Because the pitch was slow, neither Mark Waugh nor Adam Gilchrist batted with their usual zip. They still managed 50 in 13 overs before Alan Mullally out-bowled them both during his outstanding new-ball spell. Ricky Ponting and Darren Lehmann were soon rollicking along - Lehmann's first boundary, a flat swat for six from a perfectly reasonably ball by Ealham, was breathtaking before both players needlessly gave their wickets to an invigorated England.

This was the period during which Stewart attacked with his field settings and caused some tremors in the Australian camp. None of it, though, much bothered Damien Martyn, who earned his man-of-the-match award with a cameo of perfectly timed strokes. It is six years since Martyn first became an Australian cricketer. He has spent too long in the wings but, at last, is beginning to demand a place in Australia's first-choice one-day team.