The Ashes: England Beat Western Australia By Six Wickets in First Warm-Up Match

England arrived in Perth for their first warm-up game against Western Australia with realistic hopes of winning their first Ashes series down under since 1986-87.

The Western Australia line-up featured familiar names such as Marcus North, Adam Voges and Luke Ronchi who have all been involved with the international side at some point.

Western Australia won the toss and chose to bat in the three day game, making 242-8 before declaring.

Voges top scored with 72 while opener Wes Robinson made 62, the pick of the English bowlers being Stuart Broad with 3-47.

England face the Aussies at the WACA in the Third Test starting on December 16 and will hope this game will help their batters against a more potent attack.

England wobbled from 27-3 to 117-7, despite Kevin Pietersen's 58, before declaring on 223-8.

Stuart Broad (53 not out) and Graeme Swann (37 not out) came to the rescue as WA strike bowler Steve Magoffin only managed 5.4 overs, taking 2-12, before injury ended his attack on the English batsmen.

In the second innings, Western Australia looked comfortable on 130-1 before they lost their last nine wickets for 93 runs.

Robinson top scored with 54 but England's hero was Graeme Swann with 4-101 as the tourists made a game of it.

England needed 243 to win and batted much better second time around as they reached their target for the loss of only four wickets.

Andrew Strauss' 120 not out will give him some confidence in the run up to the First Test on November 25.

So, one match down and one win is how it reads in the history books.

Questions still remain over Alastair Cook's form as he made single figure scores in both innings and even the second innings batting display won't hide the nervousness displayed by the poor first innings effort.

As for the bowlers, Swann and Broad take the most credit, James Anderson did ok coming back from injury while Steven Finn will have to improve if he is to have a memorable series for the right reasons.

England play South Australia in Adelaide from November 11 as preparation continues and will hope to build on a good start and address any weaknesses.

It won't have gone unnoticed that Australia ended a seven-match losing streak by hammering Sri Lanka by eight wickets but will it be temporary relief or the start of a great cricketing summer for the Aussies?