Ponting backs India to beat Pakistan

Ponting looks on during their quarter-final match against India in Ahmedabad.—Reuters Dawn News

AHMEDABAD: Australia captain Ricky Ponting predicted India would beat Pakistan when the arch-rivals meet in the World Cup semi-finals after seeing the co-hosts end his team’s 12-year run as champions.

Ponting made his first international century in over a year when Australia batted but it wasn’t enough as India, thanks to an unbeaten 57 from Yuvraj Singh, won by five wickets after finishing on 261 for five with 14 balls to spare.“If you look at their attacks, they’re quite similar,” said Ponting, who in Australia’s preceding final group match saw Pakistan end the title-holders’ 34-match unbeaten streak at the World Cup.

“Pakistan played the quicks against us, (Abdul) Razzaq and (Umar) Gul and (Wahab) Riaz played that game as well and he’s done a pretty good job for them.They used a lot of their spin.“How do I compare the bowling attacks? It’s pretty hard to say, but I think India will beat Pakistan in the semi-final.” Ponting added of the March 30 clash in Mohali: “We all know how fierce a rivalry it is between Pakistan and India so I’m sure that’s going to be a very entertaining semi-final.

“India have a got a great chance now. Their batting is very powerful and they bat quite deep.”

World Cup semi-final: India, Pakistan it is

Ponting faces an uncertain future after Australia bowed out of the 2011 World Cup. -Photo by Reuters 

AHMEDABAD: Yuvraj Singh was India’s hero yet again as the hosts ended Australia’s 12-year-reign as World Cup champions with a five wicket quarter-final victory on Thursday.

The left-hander’s unbeaten 57 — his fourth fifty of a tournament where he is averaging over a hundred– saw his team home after they’d been wobbling at 187 for five.But India reached their target of 261 with 14 balls to spare.

Victory set up a dream semi-final against arch-rivals Pakistan in Mohali on March 30. Australia captain Ricky Ponting scored his first international century in over a year in a total of 260 for six.But it wasn’t enough to maintain his team’s bid for an unprecedented fourth straight World Cup title and fifth in all.India, aiming for a first World Cup title since 1983, needed 54 to win off the final 10 overs.

Yuvraj eased fraying home nerves with a square-driven four off Brett Lee and, with erratic speedster Shaun Tait (one for 52 in seven overs) conceding 13 runs in the 41st over, the target became well under a run-a-ball.

Yuvraj struck a brilliant straight six off Tait before ending the match with a four off Lee.
He was well-supported in an unbroken sixth-wicket partnership of 74 by Suresh Raina (34 not out).

Ponting was previously involved in a controversial incident which could have seen Gambhir out for nought when he dived forward at square leg for a possible catch before suggesting he was uncertain as to whether the ball had carried.

The umpires referred the decision but replays showed the ball bouncing well in front of Ponting.

Opener Sachin Tendulkar looked in sublime touch.But Australia denied him his 100th international hundred when he was caught behind off Tait for a fluent 53 during which he became the first batsman to score 18,000 one-day international runs.Gambhir and Virat Kohli batted steadily in a stand of 49 before Kohli (24) slapped a full toss from part-time spinner David Hussey straight to Michael Clarke at short mid-wicket.

Now the question was could the remaining batsman avoid panic.Unfortunately for India, left-hander Gambhir couldn’t.One ball after surviving a run-out, he set-off for a non-existent single and was well-beaten by Cameron White’s throw to David Hussey having made 50 and been in a position to win the match for India.Instead, at 168 for four, the pressure was back on India and that only increased when skipper MS Dhoni fell for seven after a cut off Lee was well caught by a diving Clarke at point.

Earlier, Ponting’s 104 was his first hundred since he made 106 against the West Indies in a one-day international in Brisbane last year.

Ponting, who’d managed just 102 runs at 20.4 in five previous innings this tournament, had come into the match amidst reports he could be quitting international cricket completely after the World Cup.

Nevertheless the 36-year-old demonstrated his enduring class in a 118-ball innings featuring a six and seven fours.

He was out late on when he reverse-swept Ravichandran Ashwin straight to Zaheer Khan at short third man.

Lineups:
India: Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin.

Australia: Brad Haddin, Shane Watson, Ricky Ponting (captain), Michael Clarke, Cameron White, Mike Hussey, David Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Jason Krejza, Brett Lee, Shaun Tait.

Umpires: Marais Erasmus, South Africa, and Ian Gould, England.

TV Umpire: Richard Kettleborough, England. Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle, Sri Lanka.

Fiery Aussies to target Indian throats

Australia almost have no choice but to see if the old cliche holds true given an attack built around the fast bowling trio of Brett Lee, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson. -Photo by AP
 

AHMEDABAD: India go into their World Cup quarter-final against champions Australia on Thursday ready to face some fiery fast bowling.

The co-hosts go into this game on the back of an 80-run victory over the West Indies in Chennai.

Australia’s previous match saw the end of their 34-game unbeaten World Cup run courtesy of a four-wicket defeat by fellow quarter-finalists Pakistan.

However, the way West Indies fast bowler Ravi Rampaul took five wickets, including the prize scalp of Sachin Tendulkar with a lifting delivery, has revived the debate about India’s ability to handle short-pitched bowling.Australia almost have no choice but to see if the old cliche holds true given an attack built around the fast bowling trio of Brett Lee, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson.

Johnson is looking forward to taking on Virender Sehwag having claimed the opener’s wicket nine times from 18 games.“I don’t mind bowling up into his rib-cage to be honest,” said Johnson.“He seems to struggle with that a bit. It’s always a good challenge to bowl to someone like that, he doesn’t really use his feet but he can hit the ball hard. It will be a pretty good start to the game if we can get him early.”

Yuvraj Singh, whose century against the West Indies followed on from a trio of fifties earlier in the tournament, said it was clear where Australia’s bowling strength lay.“They have pace and get wickets with pace. We have to be prepared for it and we’ll see what happens in the quarter-final.”

Yuvraj, also a handy left-arm spinner, said it was a myth India batsmen were especially vulnerable when the fast bowlers dug the ball in.“I don’t think there’s an issue with the short ball. If you have an issue with the short ball you won’t be the number one Test team and number two ODI (one-day international) team in the rankings.”

Australia captain Ricky Ponting admitted there is no secret to their attack.“We’re more reliant on fast bowlers, they are more reliant on spinners,” he said.“We expect to be facing 30 overs of spin, they will be facing 30 overs of fast bowling, those are the strengths of both teams.”Ponting goes into the match having had to fend off speculation that he was ready to quit international cricket after the World Cup.

However, the 36-year-old rubbished that suggestion.“I’ve never even thought about or contemplated retiring at the end of this World Cup.  You’ll hopefully see me playing a lot in the next few years.”

India, who beat Australia by 38 runs in a warm-up match in Bangalore, have got themselves into several good position this tournament only for their batsmen to throw it away.

For example nine wickets were lost for 29 runs in defeat by South Africa while seven went for 50 runs against the West Indies.“We’ve noticed how they’ve had crashes towards the end of the innings and the differences in their career records and their records against Australia,”Ponting said.
 

But if fast-scoring opener Sehwag, set to return from a knee injury, gets going India’s middle-order may not be an issue.Australia have batting problems of their own with both Cameron White and Ponting, who scored a blistering century in the 2003 World Cup final win over India in Johannesburg, struggling for runs.Ponting managed just 102 runs at 20.40 in six Group A matches and he hasn’t made an international century for 13 months.“I might watch the 2003 (final) video today. Especially if you are struggling, it doesn’t hurt to do that every now and then,” Ponting said.

“But I know that I and the team have both played our best games when we’ve needed to.”

Now Ponting’s men tackle a typically mercurial Pakistan in Colombo on Saturday

 

Ponting's men tackle a typically mercurial Pakistan in Colombo on Saturday. -Photo by AP Dawn.Com

BANGALORE: Australia captain Ricky Ponting said he was looking forward to the champions being tested by Pakistan in their final group match of the World Cup.

Australia already through to the quarter-finals, and bidding for a fourth straight title, made it 34 games unbeaten at the World Cup with a seven-wicket thrashing of Canada on Wednesday to go top of Group A.

Now Ponting’s men tackle a typically mercurial Pakistan in Colombo on Saturday.“It’s always a great challenge playing against Pakistan because, as everybody knows, you’re just never really sure what they’re going to turn up and do on the day,” he said.“They can be a very, very good side one day and, as we saw against New Zealand, they can be very, very ordinary the next. They have that sort of unpredictability about them.

“The last game they played in Colombo was against Sri Lanka and they upset them there so they’ll know the conditions pretty well and, by the looks of things, they’ll play the conditions there pretty well.”After restricting Canada to 211 on Wednesday, Australia raced to 212 for three with more than 15 overs to spare thanks to a first-wicket stand of 183 between Shane Watson (94) and Brad Haddin (88).

But non-Test nation Canada gave Pakistan and Australia’s opponents in the knockout stages hope when after winning the toss, they plundered the fastest team fifty of the tournament, off just 29 balls.Teenage opener Hiral Patel defied Australia’s pace trio of Shaun Tait, Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson with a dashing 54, with his half-century coming off just 37 balls with three sixes and five fours.

Ponting, however, was happy with the smooth conclusion of the match.

“I guess it’s probably not ideal that we haven’t been pushed right to the wire with many of the games that we’ve played,” said Ponting, whose side are now the only unbeaten team at this World Cup.

“But I’m pretty confident in the players that no matter who we play in this tournament from here on, we’ll be hard to beat.”He did admit that Australia’s new-ball bowling was a concern.

“Against better teams and deeper batting orders, we have to make sure we don’t let teams get off to that sort of start,” he said.“If you look at someone like (India’s Virender) Sehwag, he plays similar to the way that guy (Patel) played and if we let him get off to a start like that in a big game, it will be a lot harder to peg them back.”

Ponting, who praised 19-year-old Patel for being “savage on us” and hitting “some amazing shots”, lost his temper after taking a catch when, having seen Steven Smith nearly collide with him, he angrily threw the ball to the ground.“We both actually called for it at exactly the same time, which was why there was some confusion around,” Ponting explained.“It wasn’t a great reaction I guess. But it certainly wasn’t designed to try to inspire the team or anything like that, or to make Steven look in any way in the wrong place or make him look silly.

“If it looked bad, then I apologies for it.”