England coach Andy Flower has backed his side's attacking intentions as the way forward for their one-day cricket.

Last night's nine-wicket defeat to Australia in the semi-final at Centurion halted thoughts of a maiden success in a global tournament.

Andrew Strauss' team were hamstrung by the loss of so many wickets in the first half of their innings and it took 80 from Tim Bresnan and 48 from Luke Wright to rescue things from a position of 101 for six.

The top order paid dearly for their positive intent and Australia captain Ricky Ponting and Shane Watson then produced a batting masterclass with unbeaten hundreds for the holders, to chase down their 258-run target.

"It was a very exciting tournament to be part of. It was a great pity we couldn't get through to the final," said Flower.

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"What I did like was the attacking manner in which we played.

"It was also good seeing a couple of youngsters playing good cricket, which suggested they might be successful in the future.

"It's the only way to go. There's always a balance between attack and defence but the positive way is the way to go in international cricket."

England were missing stars Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen in this tournament while wicketkeeper Matt Prior and all-rounder Stuart Broad were also sidelined for the day-nighter.

Despite being understrength, however, Flower was frank in his assessment of the defeat.

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Like Strauss he appears happy with the intent but not necessarily the execution of some of the players.

"We were totally outplayed," said Flower. "To be six down after 20 overs, it would have taken a miracle to win from there.

"Bresnan and Wright did a brilliant job in resurrecting some sort of total, which gave us a chance but it wasn't to be.

"It exposed the batting strength again. It was a brilliant fightback but it wasn't good to see us six down so early."

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