England began an Ashes summer like they rarely have in recent times with a landslide victory over Australia in Southampton.

Although it only came in a NatWest Twenty20 contest, the inaugural international in this country, the 100-run winning margin highlighted the supremacy on the day of England, who are now in the strange position of having triumphed in the most recent matches between the sides in three different formats.

Victors in the Sydney Test of 2002-03 and in the ICC Champions Trophy semi-final at Edgbaston last September, Michael Vaughan's men ruthlessly sliced through the Australian batting with seven wickets in just 20 balls.

Veteran Darren Gough narrowly failed to take a hat-trick on the same ground for the second time in three days but his double began an amazing 15-minute spell which rarely had the 15,000 crowd off their feet.

New-ball partner Jon Lewis made a dream England debut with four for 24 and only a 36-run stand for the eighth wicket between Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee averted total disaster.

Nevertheless, Australia succumbed for just 79, the second lowest Twenty20 score in England, after the hosts piled up a challenging total on a notoriously bowler-friendly Rose Bowl surface.

It will be of little significance when the Ashes begins on July 21 but it will be a psychological boost ahead of the NatWest campaigns.

As has been the case since his introduction to the top level last winter, Hampshire's Kevin Pietersen refused to exit centre stage, providing the early momentum with a thunderous 34, from only 18 deliveries, and hauling in three smart catches at the head of the reply, two from successive Gough deliveries.

Pietersen shared a 51-run stand with Marcus Trescothick, who played intelligently in support, before the under-rated Paul Collingwood rattled off a stunning 46, which occupied only 26 balls.

It was Durham's Collingwood who found a breakthrough against the only serious Australian resistance, finishing with two for eight, before county colleague Steve Harmison gave the encounter a fitting last word by rearranging Glenn McGrath's stumps.

Prior to the game, captains Vaughan and Ricky Ponting insisted despite it bearing little significance on the one-day encounters ahead this opener was to be taken seriously rather than the slap-happy way the New Zealanders, who sported wigs and retro gear, treated the only previous 20-over international.

Twelve sixes flew from Australian bats in their 44-run win that day and when Adam Gilchrist flayed in usual fashion it appeared only a matter of time for a first maximum - it never arrived.

One slice off Gough landed inches from the rope at third man but having raced to 23 without loss in the third over, the mayhem began when Gilchrist skied to mid-on.

Moments later, 34-year-old Gough, who claimed a hat-trick against a Hampshire XI in a warm-up match on Saturday, had the chance to repeat the feat when Matthew Hayden walked down the wicket and smited a pull which merely looped into the leg-side for Pietersen to complete the dismissal running back from midwicket.

Andrew Symonds negated the opportunity for three in three by shouldering a short ball but the remarkable flurry of wickets continued apace with Lewis claiming Michael Clarke, caught behind by wicketkeeper Geraint Jones, standing up to the wicket, and Symonds held by Pietersen at midwicket to make it four wickets in six balls.

Faced with the prospect of a repair job, something the Australians are seldom required to do, they folded.

Mike Hussey and Damien Martyn edged to solitary slips off Gough and Lewis respectively either side of Ponting's miscue to extra-cover which was gobbled up at the second attempt by Vikram Solanki.

When Brett Lee opened up the first of many Anglo-Australian encounters this summer with balls in excess of 90 miles per hour which regularly whistled past the outside edge, a low-scoring game seemed in the offing.

England began at snail's pace, scoring just six runs from the opening two overs, two of those from a free hit which Jones spiralled high to midwicket where he was caught by Hussey in the process of running two.

The tempo increased considerably thereafter despite the loss of Jones and Andrew Flintoff, the first of England's heavy artillery, who took up only five deliveries.

That led to the entrance of 24-year-old Pietersen, whose brute strength resulted in three booming fours while a huge blow from the bowling of Gillespie rattled into the stands at long-on.

Ambition accounted for England's newest batting star, however, as he picked out deep extra-cover off Clarke's left-arm spin in the 11th over.

England had reached three figures by that point but got stuck in a rut against the Australian slow bowlers as only 10 were collected in three overs for the loss of Trescothick and Vaughan to Symonds.

A brilliant diving catch by counterpart Ponting, at mid-on, accounted for Vaughan while Trescothick swept to deep square-leg where Hussey held high above his head.

Confronted with a collapse of three wickets for nine runs while spinners Clarke and Symonds operated in tandem, Collingwood played perhaps his canniest innings yet in England's blue and red.

He refused to panic, scampering singles and employing an ability to hit the ball into unusual areas to strike five fours as well as thrashed leg-side sixes off Clarke and Gillespie, whose penultimate over cost 17.