Yes, Tuesday night's comprehensive win was against a Prime Minister's XI side containing a combination of old heads, fringe players and uncapped youngsters.

But when you're travelling as bad as the Poms have in the past two months, any success is one to savour.

A terrific bowling performance – starring all-rounder Ravi Bopara with a remarkable 4-3 – and half-centuries to Jos Buttler (61 from 60 balls) and Gary Ballance (56 from 71) led to England hammering the invitational side by 172 runs in Canberra.

England's total of 264 was never in danger for the PM's XI, which never recovered from being 2-18 to be all out for 92 in just the 26th over at a near-capacity Manuka Oval crowd of 12,316.

It's England's first win on tour since it beat a Cricket Australia Invitational XI in November and is the first time the PM's XI has failed to reach 100 in a completed match.

Buttler hoped it would lead to a turnaround in his side's fortunes for Friday's second one-day international at the Gabba on Friday.

"It's going to be a morale boost for everyone no matter who it's against and hopefully we can take that momemtum forward to Brisbane,'' Buttler said.

"There's a lot of positives that came out of today.

"We put up a challenging total and put them under early pressure with the ball.''

The big worry for England still remains Alastair Cook.

The out of form skipper survived just two balls before he trudged off Manuka Oval having nicked a searing ball from former Test paceman Brett Lee to wicket-keeper Peter Handscombe for one.

"I haven't really noticed any difference (in Cook) from when I've been around him in the past,'' Buttler said.

"I'm sure he wants to score the runs and lead us from the front and he's doing everything he can to get back to doing that.''

England fielded a near-full strength team, with Ben Stokes and Ian Bell sitting out in favour of Michael Carberry and spinner James Tredwell.

In contrast, apart from Lee, who plays for the Sydney Sixers, the rest of the squad came from the Melbourne Stars and the Brisbane Heat to limit the impact on the Big Bash League.

Brad Hodge, Luke Pomersbach and Canberra's Michael Spaseski, who made eight, were the three specialist batsmen in the team, with all-rounder Ben Cutting batting at No 6 in the order.

"I'm very comfortable with the team that was chosen,'' Lee said.

"In different circumstances when you have got the whole squad to choose from, potentially we might have been more competitive.

"But that was nothing against the guys playing tonight.''

Promising leg-spinner James Muirhead performed admirably with a haul of 3-52, while Lee wound back the clock to take 2-22 from seven overs including the key wickets of Cook and Joe Root (one).

England was in all sorts of strife at 2-12 before Carberry and Ballance began a rescue mission.

Buttler and fast bowler Tim Bresnan did a similar recovery job in the latter stages, putting on 80 for the sixth wicket after coming together at 6-149 to ensure England posted a competitive target.

The start of the PM's XI innings mirrored that of England's.

Handscomb (eight) chopped a deliver from Chris Jordan (1-13 from five) back on to his stumps, and Luke Pomersbach (one) followed soon after to the bowling of Boyd Rankin (2-39 from eight) to leave the hosts reeling at 2-18.