Ed Joyce hit a maiden century, Ian Bell a fifty and Liam Plunkett and Sajid Mahmood starred with the ball to help England to a 92-run in Sydney.

Flintoff said: "One of the real pleasing things about it is that it was the young lads who won the game for us.

"They carried us through -- that gives you a lot of heart and shows these lads can play."

It was the first time in three months -- 10 matches, 9,119 minutes of play and 12,588 balls -- England had beaten Australia.

Flintoff won the toss and England posted 292-7 in their 50 overs -- a record one-day score for them against Australia.

They then skittled Australia out for 200 to keep their hopes of making the finals of the Commonwealth Bank Series alive.

"The one thing we had to do was keep the belief we could beat Australia," said Flintoff.

"A combination of everything -- winning the toss -- came together.

"We went back to the basics of one-day cricket: your opening batsman bats through, gets a hundred and the others bat around him.

"Then, with the ball in your hand defending 290, there is a real belief you can do it. The fielding was fantastic and we didn't let up."

England play New Zealand on Tuesday in a winner-takes-all match to see who will meet Australia in the best-of-three finals.