Andrew Wu at Trent Bridge
Ricky Ponting's decision to rest after the Ashes series was vindicated with his match-winning century at Trent Bridge on Wednesday night.
In just his second innings after a short break following Australia's defeat in the Ashes, Ponting made a stellar 126 off 109 balls as the tourists made it five wins from as many one-dayers against a beleaguered England.
Ponting recently announced his retirement from international Twenty20 cricket in a bid to keep himself fresh for the major Tests and one-day tournaments, and his latest performance underlines why.
Coming just days after a fluent 48 at Lord's on Saturday, Ponting's century was his 27th in the 50-over game and fourth against the English.
"I think anyone that we've rested over the last few years have generally come back and played really well," he said.
"Gilly used to do it all the time and I think I've done it a few times as well."
"I've worked hard on my batting since I've been back to get enough volume work to be able to go out there and play like I did today."
Provided it does not stumble in the remaining two games against England, Australia will head to the Champions Trophy against South Africa peaking at the right time after indifferent form earlier this year.
It was able to rest in-form paceman Brett Lee, whose replacement Peter Siddle performed with distinction returning 1-50 from 10 overs in just his second ODI.
Australia's effort to run down such a big total was also pleasing, Ponting said, given the transitional state of the one-day side.
"You need to do a lot of things well in your batting to get those runs and I thought we did that tonight," he said.
"For the Fergusons and the Whites to see the way we went about it and learn some things about the way we went about it should hold those guys in good stead."
England captain Andrew Strauss was left to explain another failure by his side, though was pleased by an improved performance by his batsmen.
They still have much work to do as evidenced by just one half-century - by Eoin Morgan - from its top six.
"I thought our batsmen went out with a much more bold approach and that paid dividends today," he said.
"I thought that was closer to our potential as a batting unit."
England's fielding, however, was inexcusably poor.
Misfields off two consecutive balls in the 45th over yielded boundaries at a time when the equation for Australia was a nerve-jangling run a ball.
"We do a lot of work on the fielding and we should be better than that, so that is frustrating," Strauss said.
"It was a far better performance today, so that was encouraging, but in tight games you don't want to let yourself down in the more elementary areas of the game."