Can Joyce hold on till the end …

ENGLAND, looking for its first win over Australia on tour, shrugged off the loss of a dazed Mal Loye to take control at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Loye was caught for 29 one ball after top-edging an attempted sweep off Glenn McGrath onto his helmet grille. The blow connected with the opening batsman's chin and there was a lengthy break in play while he received attention.

The right hander perished to an ill-conceived and miscued pull shot which was pouched by Nathan Bracken at backward square.

But England, which needs to win its remaining two round-robin matches to join Australia in the best-of-three finals series, was otherwise untroubled in reaching 1-162 after 32 overs.

In-form Ed Joyce was unbeaten on 66 with No.3 Ian Bell 49 not out in what represented England's best showing of the series after captain Andrew Flintoff won the toss.

Bell wasted no time finding his feet after Loye's dismissal, taking McGrath for successive boundaries past point, while Joyce also took a liking to the veteran paceman with a cracking pulled four at the end of the 13th over.

England's second-wicket pairing took their partnership near triple figures just after the halfway mark of the innings when Joyce crashed Andrew Symonds through the covers for four at the start of a highly eventful over.

Next ball, Symonds missed a catchable caught-and-bowled chance off Joyce to his left before keeper Adam Gilchrist allowed a tough inside edge to go past him for three.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting suffered a hip injury in training and was replaced by Victoria batsman Brad Hodge, leaving Adam Gilchrist to captain the unbeaten leader of the limited-overs tri-series.

South Australia fast bowler Shaun Tait was handed a one-day international debut by Australia.

Tait opened the bowling with Bracken and bowled with real pace, but did little in an initial five-over spell apart from drop Joyce while resting inbetween overs at deep point.

He returned in the 21st over but could not find the breakthrough, conceding five wides down leg-side after being spanked to the deep cover fence by Joyce.

England, left out ill batsman Paul Collingwood and brought in debutant Ravi Bopara and paceman Sajid Mahmood, who replaced Chris Tremlett.

Bopara is a 21-year-old all rounder who plies his trade with Essex in English county cricket. He averages 34 with the bat and 50 with the ball in 48 first-class matches.