England easily won the first skirmish of their long drawn-out battle with Australia when they took the Champions Trophy clash at Edgbaston by 48 runs.

As hosts meeting holders at the start of a global competition, this match would always have attracted attention. And its result means Australia must beat New Zealand at Edgbaston on Tuesday to have any hope of a hat-trick of Champions Trophies.

But it was impossible not also to see it in the context of what follows. This was the first of 66 days of cricket, 26 matches in three different formats including 10 Ashes tests, in which these teams meet between now and February 2. Australia's captain George Bailey said: "Every England v Australia game means something, but I don't think it puts down a marker."

For Australia, things can only get better. As Bailey admitted, England won more convincingly than the numbers suggest. Their total of 269 for six was well short of the score they should have achieved, yet always looked more than enough.

Aussie paceman Mitchell Starc will want to forget his debut in England, which saw his first ball struck to the boundary as an aperitif to conceding 75 runs. Australia's only real bright spot was another newcomer, James Faulkner, who was their best bowler and delayed the inevitable with the bat, striking 54 not out. For England, Jimmy Anderson took three wickets. The first, Mitchell Marsh, was his 235th for England in one-day internationals, breaking his tie with Darren Gough as their all-time record holder. And Tim Bresnan looked back to his talismanic form of two seasons ago with two wickets and sensibly robust late-innings hitting.

Bailey said he had been happy to chase 270, which he thought was an achievable total, adding: "They bowled very well and made it very difficult for us. There was nothing we weren't expecting."

England had seemed destined for a massive total against an attack featuring four left-armers and three men christened Mitchell. When the hometown duo of Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott took England past 150 in the 32nd over, the Duckworth-Lewis formula forecast a score of more than 320.

And even the loss of Trott for 43, with the score at 168, seemed well-timed to let in England's middle order for a late-innings charge. But the change of gear never happened. Instead England stalled, losing five wickets as the score advanced to 213.

The key departure was Bell, whose every elegant stroke had attracted extra appreciation from his home crowd. Little seemed more certain that, having passed 50 for the fifth time in 10 international innings at Edgbaston, he would finally make it to three figures.

Instead, on 91, he missed a straight one from Faulkner, of whom England should see plenty in the next few months. The Tasmanian left-armer could figure in all three formats, having performed well for Kolkata in the Indian Premier League and been among the stars of his native island's Sheffield Shield triumph in Australia.

He and Clint McKay held England in check, taking two wickets apiece. It took a judicious late barrage from Ravi Bopara, whose 46 not out included the only six of the innings, to get England to 269.