CANBERRA (Reuters):

There is no reason for England to panic despite their embarrassing 166-run loss to the Prime Minister's XI in yesterday's Ashes tour opener, captain Andrew Flintoff said.

The tourists have been in a prolonged slump since their epic series win over Australia last year, and yesterday's defeat was not the sort of performance to instantly restore their confidence with the first Ashes Test starting in just 13 days.

Flintoff, however, put on a brave face.

"We're not going to get too despondent about it," he told reporters. "We know we have to improve and we'll do that before the first Test in Brisbane.

Bad side

"We've had a defeat today but it doesn't turn us into a bad side."

The PM's XI, a scratch team made up of fringe Test players, demolished England's wayward bowlers to pile on 347 for five from their 50 overs with opener Phil Jaques blasting a century.

England's reply was a modest 181 with the innings coming to an abrupt end in the 39th over. Only Andrew Strauss (67) and Paul Collingwood (35) made meaningful contributions with the bat.

Confidence

Australia's provincial teams are all hoping to make life hard for the English to erode their confidence before the Test series.

"If that helps the Australian team in some way then we've done our part," PM XI's skipper Cameron White declared.

Flintoff, clean bowled by Shaun Tait for one after conceding 55 runs from his 10 overs with the ball, said it was clear his team needed to quickly improve but was confident they would.

"We've still got talented players and we've got to express ourselves in the weeks to come," he said.

While yesterday's opening tour match was only a warm-up game, there were still a number of worrying signs for the English with just two more practice games before the Ashes.

Their bowling was loose and their fielding sloppy while their top-order batsmen wasted the chance for some much-needed practice on a pitch that was tailor-made for heavy scoring.