Australian captain Ricky Ponting promised there would be no quarter given to England after the tourists sank still further into the abyss with the meek surrender of the Australia Day tri-series match at Adelaide Oval.

A score of 110 in 34.3 overs was England's fourth lowest ever tally against Australia and the lowest total in all limited overs matches at the ground since a better English side knocked over Pakistan for 74 in a rained out match during the 1992 World Cup.

The Australians had little trouble reaching the target in only 24.3 overs for their fifth victory from as many games in the tournament.

Ponting compiled 51 not out after being dropped at slip by Paul Collingwood off Monty Panesar, while Matthew Hayden scratched around for an unbeaten 30 in 68 balls.

So swift was the slaughter - little more than four hours of actual playing time - that there was no need for the oval's lights to be turned on, but Ponting said England would still be treated as a serious threat.

"I think sides sometimes can be most dangerous when they have a run like that," he said.

"When they have a couple of bad losses in a row they can tend to just try to release the pressure as much as they can, just throw caution to the wind.

"I've seen that with Sri Lanka a couple of times, a few years ago they played Australia A here in Adelaide and got bowled out for 50, played another game and got bowled out for 50 again, and we played them two days later in Sydney and they got 340 against us.

"Sometimes sides can be dangerous in this situation so we don't allow them to get off to a flying start in any of the games we play against them."

In front of a sold out crowd of 27,058 and on a wicket offering no great favours to bowlers, the English had set new standards of ineptitude after winning the toss.

The departure of Ian Bell for an aggressive 35 ended all semblance of meaningful resistance as a succession of batsmen simply gave their wickets away to an Australian attack missing first choice pacemen Glenn McGrath and Nathan Bracken.

Brett Lee (2-8) began the slide with another precise new ball spell, but Mitchell Johnson was the main beneficiary in grabbing 4-45, including a burst of 3-0 in seven balls to take England from 5-103 to 8-106.

Brad Hogg flummoxed the tail to pick-up 2-16 in his first match of the series.

Lee had gone up for a raucous if optimistic lbw appeal against Andrew Strauss on the first ball of the match, but he did not wait long for a wicket.

Mal Loye utilised his crazy brave slog sweep to once deposit Johnson onto the roof of the Chappell Stands, only to nick a wide one from Lee in the fifth over.

His wasteful dismissal was repeated by the next five English batsmen, as the relative comfort of 1-47 gave way to a scoreline as depressing as any registered all tour.

Strauss feathered an attempted glide to third man, Bell carved needlessly in the air, Ed Joyce skied an ambitious pull shot, Collingwood drove limply to mid off and Flintoff flashed at a wide one to be caught at slip.

It was not until Jamie Dalrymple edged a good length ball from Johnson to be seventh out that the bowler could have claimed he had legitimately beaten the batsman.

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