Vaughan keen to keep aggression under control in showpiece final

The fallout of Tuesday's unsavoury incident at Edgbaston, where four England players surrounded Matthew Hayden after he had reacted indignantly to being hit by a wild Simon Jones throw, has placed the England captain in a difficult position.

Vaughan, understandably, wants his players to meet fire with fire. But he is also aware that such an approach could quite easily lead to his team overstepping the mark and ending up with a hefty fine or a ban.

Steve Waugh can hardly claim to be an angel, and during his time in charge of Australia the world champions were unpleasant to play against, but Vaughan would be wise to listen. Waugh has advised his former team-mates to ignore England's provocation and to concentrate on their cricket. He suggested that by attempting to take on England in a verbal joust Australia's players could take their eye off what is important, namely winning games of cricket.

Vaughan said as much at Lord's yesterday. "Australia are a good team that play it hard," he said. "We must play well against them, but we need to play in our own manner. Not every player is fiery and aggressive, and I certainly wouldn't want any of my players going out and being that person if they have not done it before. You don't want players getting dragged into confrontations if it is going to affect their performance.

"This is a massive game for us. To be in a final at Lord's and to be playing against Australia is everything you really dream of. It is going to be a great occasion for the team. We are prepared to play both types of game, and I have no problem with it getting fiery as long as we don't step over the line.

"Both teams are competitive and there is bound to be the odd confrontation but we need to concentrate on the cricket. What happened on Tuesday was taken out of all proportion."

That would be the case if the incident had involved only Jones and Hayden. But when Vaughan, Paul Collingwood and Andrew Strauss suddenly appeared on Hayden's shoulder like three night club heavies, things were going too far.

It is 97 months since an England victory over Australia won a piece of silverware - the 1997 Texaco Trophy - but Vaughan's team should enter this encounter feeling pretty optimistic. With each side having won one game and the third being a washout, honours are about even.

But England can take confidence from their wins against Bangladesh. Australia, remarkably, lost to the minnows in Cardiff and were pushed at Canterbury on Thursday.

Big games often bring the best out of big players and in Andrew Flintoff England have a man currently rated as the finest all-rounder in limited-over cricket. With him Vaughan's side are a competitive one-day outfit; without him they are ordinary.

England's results back this statement up. Vaughan's side have won only 14 of the 41 matches they have played without their talisman, and four of these were against a poor Zimbabwe side in November 2004. England are fortunate to have such an influential player but it is dangerous to be so dependent on him.

"You always need a couple of individuals to hold their hands up and put in match-winning performances," Vaughan said, "and having Flintoff back in the side is a big bonus for us. We missed him in South Africa."

Flintoff has had a mixed tournament. The Lancastrian has been outstanding with the ball but he has struggled with the bat. Vaughan does not feel that the arrival of Kevin Pietersen has had an adverse effect, but Flintoff looks rather conservative at the crease these days.

The prospect of the pair smashing the Aussies around grabbed many headlines when Pietersen's prowess became apparent, but Flintoff promised not to become involved in a shoot-out with his team-mate.

Yet in an attempt to prove this he is no longer playing his natural, aggressive game and on two occasions he has been caught on the boundary.

The teams which played at Edgbaston are expected to line up at Lord's, and if the weather remains fine it could be a classic encounter.

ENGLAND (from): M P Vaughan (Yorkshire, capt), M E Trescothick (Somerset), A J Strauss (Middlesex), P D Collingwood (Durham), A Flintoff (Lancashire), K P Pietersen (Hampshire), G O Jones (Kent, wkt), D Gough (Essex), A F Giles (Warwickshire), S P Jones (Glamorgan), S J Harmison (Durham), C T Tremlett (Hampshire), J Lewis (Gloucestershire), Kabir Ali (Worcestershire), V S Solanki (Worcestershire), I R Bell (Warwickshire).

AUSTRALIA (from): R T Ponting (capt), A C Gilchrist (wkt), M L Hayden, D R Martyn, A Symonds, M J Clarke, M E K Hussey, G B Hogg, B Lee, J N Gillespie, G D McGrath, S R Watson, M S Kasprowicz.