A brilliant ton from Shane Watson saw Australia retain their Champions Trophy title after notching up a six-wicket win over New Zealand at SuperSport Park in Centurion.

Chasing a below-par targer of 201, the Australians pulled off a well-judged chase thanks to Watson's second ton of the tournament and a half-century from Cameron White.

Under pressure after Shane Bond (one for 34) and Kyle Mills (three for 27) picked up the early wickets of Tim Paine (one) and Ricky Ponting (one) respectively, Watson (105) and White (62) consolidated the innings before pushing on towards the finish line in a third-wicket partnership of 128.

The pair were not without their luck though. Bond and Mills beat the bat time after time in the early exchanges and on another day the former could have bagged a handful of wickets.

Mills returned to break the Watson-White stand and picked up the wicket of Mike Hussey (11) soon after to give the Kiwis late hope, but insurmountable damage had already been done and Watson together with James Hopes (22) saw the Australians home without further cause for concern. Watson brought up his hundred and secured victory with consecutive sixes off spinner Jeetan Patel over Cow Corner..

Earlier the Black Caps were rocked by the news that skipper Daniel Vettori would take no part in the game after straining his hamstring.

Vettori's injury brought the New Zealanders' total of first-choice players sidelined through injury to four, with Jacob Oram, Jesse Ryder and Darryl Tuffey all falling by the wayside at various stages of the tournament.

On winning the toss, stand-in captain Brendon McCullum insisted the team retained great self-belief even without the presence of Vettori but this didn't translate into runs on the board as they lost wickets with unwanted regularity.

McCullum (nought) himself was the first to go in an prolonged period of slow scoring, in which the New Zealanders managed to muster just 22 runs in their first 10 overs.

A partnership of 61 between Aaron Redmond (26) and Martin Guptill (40) briefly gave some stability to the innings, but a plethora of wickets saw the Kiwis stutter to 94 for five.

James Franklin (33) and Neil Broom (37) consolidated matters before continuing the Black Caps' pattern of ultilising the batting Powerplay in effective fashion. Opting for it at the start of the 39th over, Broom in particular made good use of the sparsely-populated boundary ropes with a number of solid shots before perishing to a needless run-out.

With Franklin falling soon afterwards the procession of wickets began once more, with Nathan Hauritz (three for 37) the chief wicket-taker for the Australians.

The first 50 overs were marred by a nasty knee injury suffered by Callum Ferguson, with the fielder jarring his knee awkwardly while fielding the ball at mid-off. Ferguson was able to leave the field without the assistance of a stretcher but did not take up his regular spot in the batting line-up.

Having left Australia in May to begin their tour of England that preceded the Champions Trophy, Ashes losers Australia head home with their pride restored, worthy winners of a very competitive competition.

Julia Harris in Centurion