Warne calms down tired and emotional fans as England slump

With tensions rising as Mark Waugh and Ricky Ponting hit runs at will, Warne made a personal appeal to the crowd of more than 82,000 to stop hurling golf balls and even beer bottles.

England's batsmen were skittled out for an embarassing 178 before Waugh and Ponting ripped into their opponents bowling to see the home team pass the victory target with more than 10 overs to spare.

But the main talking point was the ugly scenes in the stands at the MCG after Warne pleaded with drunken fans to calm down.

Play was halted for nearly five minutes at one stage and if not for the intervention of Warne, the game could have been stopped completely.

Warne was summoned by England skipper Alec Stewart and the umpires as the trouble began after the umpteenth Mexican wave of the evening got out of control.

As the wave went around the ground spectators threw mountains of rubbish into the air and the boundary was soon awash with litter, golf balls and beer bottles.

Just as it appeared as though the players would walk off, Warne appeared from the Australian dressing room and walked over to the worst trouble spot in the ground to calm drunken fans.

The move worked enabling Waugh, 83 not out, and Ponting, 75 not out, to complete the demolition job.

England came into the game on top of the table after winning their first two matches but they were exposed by an Australia side Australia which scored a crushing nine wicket win.

It was a stunning return to form by Ponting, who was dumped from the Test side this summer and who has made little impact in the tri-series to date, with the highlight of his knock being three boundaries off one Dean Headley over.

Waugh made England pay dearly for their sloppiness in the field with Graeme Hick dropping him at second slip off the very first ball of the Australian innings.

England's poor fielding complemented their haphazard batting effort, in which they failed to play out their 50 overs, eventually being bowled out in only the 44th over.

While Australia bowled and fielded well, with Waugh and Michael Bevan both taking superb diving catches, England only had themselves to blame as batsman after batsman departed to soft dismissals.

The worst offender was Mark Ealham who revealed all three stumps to Glenn McGrath as he stepped across to the off side to try and hit a straight ball through the leg side.

Robert Croft was run out after failing to respond to a call from Nasser Hussain for what should have been a regulation single.

So bad was England's batting performance that their highest partnership was only a measly 33 and the in-form Australian top order was never going to be troubled in chasing a required run rate of less than 3.6 an over.