Veteran seamer Darren Gough believes England are ready to smash Australia's one-day stranglehold when the old enemies meet again in the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy here on Tuesday.
World champions Australia have won the last 14 limited overs matches between the two teams and England's last win was over five years ago, in January 1999 in Melbourne.
Gough, who played in that match, is his country's most experienced one-day campaigner having played 136 times and the 34-year-old believes England now have the depth of talent and experience to end that losing sequence.
"That run has to be broken sometime and let's hope it's this time," said Gough who now plays his county cricket at Essex.
"We all want to play in the final, but we're playing a quality side. We're playing well and we're playing quality cricket."
England sealed their semi-final place with a 49-run Duckworth-Lewis victory over Sri Lanka at the Rose Bowl in Southampton on Saturday after recovering from 123 for four to reach a commanding 251 for seven after a brilliant century from in-form all-rounder Andrew Flintoff.
The real test, however, will come on Tuesday when England's progress will be measured against the world champions." The Australia match has always been at the back of players' minds, not so much because it's Australia but because we've reached the semi-final and that's been the main discussion," said Gough.
"It would have been nice to have played them in the final, but it's something to look forward to. The way we're playing it's a good time to play the Aussies but they are a quality team and we've seen how they've played in this tournament.
"They've smashed the two sides they've played."
Regardless of the result Gough insists the true measure of how England measure up against Australia will not come until next summer when the sides meet in a five-Test Ashes series.
"I don't think we have to beat them to know that England have progressed in both forms of the game," added Gough.
"We have a good one-day side and the Test side is playing some excellent cricket, but we'll only get a true test of how close the sides are when they play against each other in a five-Test series.
People have said it's a mental thing, but every guy in that dressing room wants to go and beat them. When people keep getting beaten they are going to look at it that way, but we all want to beat them.
"Even when I'm not playing I want England to beat them - it's always going to be that way. There will come a time when England beat Australia all the time and the Aussies will be thinking the same.
"They're the best side and everyone wants to play against them and everyone wants to beat them. It's difficult to say whether the gap has closed and they have been at the top of their game for a long time. But England have been improving steadily for five or six years now.
"It started under (previous skipper) Nasser Hussain and it's carried on under Michael Vaughan."