The temporary elevation of Shane Warne to Australia's one-day captaincy despite revelations about his dealings with an illegal Indian bookmaker has distracted a country used to giving its sporting heroes unconditional backing.

The start of the triangular series yesterday provided an occasion for the Australian public to call a truce but, if the Brisbane crowd treated Warne benignly, fortune was not ready to come to his aid.

Instead England launched their one-day campaign with a spirited win by seven runs on a rain-revised target, fashioned by a maverick fast bowler shod in a pair of hastily customised Michael Jordan basketball boots. The original sole was sanded down by a Queensland bootmaker, a new studded sole stuck on and white sticking plaster used to disguise the fact that the boots were predominantly black.

Quite what the steel toe-capped old-timers would make of Alan Mullally's emergency purchase in a Brisbane sports shop, after his official new size 12s organised by Ian Botham proved to be too small, beggars belief.

But they would have been mightily impressed by his virtuoso display. He took four wickets in a new-ball spell which demolished Australia's top order, all this from a bowler who last summer was asked to believe that he had been omitted from England's provisional 38 for the World Cup as "an oversight".

Warne failed to take a wicket in England's 178 for eight and, as Australia chased a recalculated 153 in 36 overs, he was run out by yards, courtesy of a magnificent diving stop and direct hit from mid-on by Mark Alleyne.

For Alleyne, on his England one-day debut, the moment could not have been sweeter. One comic mishap on a wet outfield, when he swam after the ball for several yards, making three unsuccessful grabs at it, had been endlessly replayed on the big screen as Australia indulged its favourite pastime of Pom-baiting.

It was a tight match but its lighter moments did not come amiss after the tension of the Ashes series and the public agonising brought about by Warne and Mark Waugh's evidence to the Pakistan judicial inquiry. Steve Waugh, Australia's injured one-day captain, even allowed himself to be caught by Channel 9's cameras reading a novel entitled Sins Of My Brother.

Mullally was surprised to find a wet ball so responsive, not that it always behaved predictably. "The ball kept doing the wrong thing," he said. "For two of the wickets I meant to make it go away and it came back. I didn't know what was going on, so I'm sure that the batsmen didn't."

With Darren Gough coming in for heavy punishment, Mullally's intervention was essential. Adam Gilchrist was bowled, Mark Waugh edged an inswinger to the wicketkeeper, Adam Hollioake flung himself forward at mid-on to cling to Ricky Ponting's leading edge and Damien Martyn was bowled for nought by a cracker which came back to strike the middle stump.

Greg Blewett has made six hundreds in 10 first-class innings this season and his summer's average against England is 525. No matter, he also stalked off without scoring, cutting weakly at Mark Ealham. Australia, at 48 for five, had lost four wickets for two runs.

It was Michael Bevan's unbeaten 56, from 76 balls, which sustained their challenge. Thirteen were needed from the last over, with Gough so unnerved by a slippery ball that England made futile attempts to change it. But a yorker which struck Adam Dale's leg stump and a smattering of full tosses proved good enough.

Alec Stewart had finally won a toss, after losing all five in the Test series, but it proved no immediate panacea. He fell leg-before to Dale's first ball and then watched England subside to 93 for six.

To discover NeilFair brother peering down the pitch, in his slightly wild-eyed fashion, as he knotted together the fraying strands of England's innings was to feel that the world had gone back in time.

Thirteen years have passed since Fairbrother's one-day debut. His powers of invention caused him briefly to be regarded as the finest limited-overs batsman in the world, but he has won only one cap in the past three years and, at 35, owes his re-emergence as a World Cup contender largely to the injury doubts surrounding Graham Thorpe.

Four years ago Thorpe was put on a hospital drip suffering from exhaustion and dehydration after batting in back-to-back one-day internationals in Brisbane's heat and humidity. Fairbrother's innings was not as sapping - two hours and 83 balls for his 47 - but fatigue was setting in when he fell prey to Glenn McGrath's outswinging yorker.

Only Nick Knight matched Fairbrother's organisation before his fondness for running the pace bowlers to third man cost him dearly. Graeme Hick was erroneously judged caught at the wicket, cutting at Damien Fleming.

For the ninth-wicket pair of Gough and Robert Croft to eke out a further 42 runs in the last nine overs, the last of them played out in strengthening drizzle, represented riches by the standards of England's lower order.

England's debutant all-rounders found little satisfaction with the bat. Vince Wells was bowled, attempting an ambitious leg-side hit at Dale, and Alleyne was run out as he turned slowly for a second run, presumably taking one look at Warne's ballooning figure and fearing that he would never find a way around it. Alleyne's revenge came later.