Ponting Puts Heat On Lanka

The Age

Saturday April 28, 2007

Chloe Saltau, Bridgetown, Barbados

READING straight from the successful 2003 blueprint, Australian captain Ricky Ponting has questioned how Sri Lanka's young players, including the punk slinger Lasith Malinga, will handle the pressure of their first World Cup final tonight.

Brimming with confidence on the eve of the country's quest for a historic third successive title, Australia was last night planning to attack the Sri Lankans on several fronts and reprise the "perfect game" produced in the 2003 final against India in Johannesburg.

Predictably, the world champions will aim to exploit the steep bounce of Kensington Oval against Sri Lanka's batsmen, accustomed to subcontinental wickets, who do not enjoy the ball rearing up at them from an uncomfortable length such as the Brett Lee thunderbolt that cracked Sanath Jayasuriya's arm at the last World Cup.

"There is no question that they don't like the bounce as much as teams like us and South Africa and probably the West Indies. If we can exploit something there with the conditions then we will be certainly doing it," said Ponting from the comfort of a camp that contains the best exploiter of bounce in the business, Glenn McGrath, and a fast, loose cannon in Shaun Tait.

The 37-year-old champion and the rising quick have taken 48 wickets between them in the tournament.

"That doesn't so much mean running in and bowling bouncers every ball. Glenn gets guys out with bounce around (waist) sort of length. It just gets a bit high on them. That's where that is going to be important."

Sri Lanka will probably depend on its most experienced players, explosive opener Jayasuriya and champion spinner Muthiah Muralidaran, to engineer an upset, but has a shock weapon every bit as dangerous as Tait in Malinga.

The 23-year-old will not generate the same bounce as the Australian, because he delivers from an even lower trajectory, but he can still cause havoc by skidding the ball on and swinging it at devastating speeds.

The Australians are wary of Malinga, who like Tait can be wayward one moment and lethal the next, but Ponting took the opportunity to single him out as the inexperienced man who will set the tone for his country's performance with the new ball.

His remarks brought to mind Zaheer Khan's adrenaline-charged opening to the 2003 World Cup final, when the young Indian paceman's unfocused aggression cost eight extras in the first over and allowed Australia's batsmen to take control.

"It will be interesting to see how it starts, actually. For someone like him who is relatively young in the game, in a World Cup final, it might not be that easy. Things might not go to plan for him right from the start," Ponting said.

"With some of their younger players, of course we are going to try to put them under pressure. Whether that means we have to attack Malinga or not, or if he's not quite at his best that day and serves up a few bad balls early, then we'll certainly try to put those away and get him under pressure."

The Sri Lankan selectors yesterday reacted to paceman Dilhara Fernando's nervous performance in the semi-final against New Zealand by replacing him with the more reliable Farveez Maharoof. The Australians, with Matthew Hayden in heroic form, will be looking for a way into Sri Lanka's well-rounded attack and have signalled their intention to get on top of Maharoof and the left-arm spin of Jayasuriya on a pitch that is unlikely to offer much turn.

"There are some areas in their team where we think we can put them under some serious pressure," Ponting said. "There are some holes there. It's about us getting into a position in the game where we are able to do that."

An Australian victory would provide a fitting send-off for McGrath and coach John Buchanan. Ponting, McGrath and Adam Gilchrist are all shooting for the unprecedented hat-trick of cups.

Ponting, who produced one of the great one-day innings in the 2003 final against India, sensed similar emotions ahead of tonight's final.

"I've been really excited about the feel around this team for the last couple of weeks. It's got a lot of the '03 sort of feel about it," he said.

"It's just a matter of us getting out there and doing it again. I don't see why we can't at the moment, I don't care who we play. It's a really enjoyable time and we've still got another excellent game in us on Saturday, if not our best game for the tournament."

THE FINAL: AUSTRALIA v SRI LANKA

TONIGHT, KENSINGTON OVAL, BARBADOS

TV: CHANNEL NINE, LIVE FROM 11PM. FOX SPORTS 3, LIVE FROM 11PM

THE TALE OF THE TAPE*

AUSTRALIA

Matthew Hayden 621 runs at 77.62

Adam Gilchrist 304 at 33.77

Ricky Ponting (c) 502 at 71.71

Michael Clarke 428 at 85.60

Andrew Symonds 166 at 55.33

Mike Hussey 87 at 17.40

Shane Watson 3 wickets at 56

Brad Hogg 20 at 15.65

Nathan Bracken 15 at 14.93

Shaun Tait 23 at 18.47

Glenn McGrath 25 at 13.04

Brad Hodge (12th man) 123 runs at 76

SRI LANKA

Sanath Jayasuriya 404 runs at 44.88

Upul Tharanga 292 at 29.20

Kumar Sangakkara 296 at 32.88

Mahela Jayawardene (c) 529 at 66.12

Chamara Silva 329 at 47

Tillakaratne Dilshan 203 at 33.83

Russel Arnold 117 at 39

Chaminda Vaas 13 wickets at 17.84

Lasith Malinga 16 at 14.68

Muthiah Muralidaran 23 at 13.34

Farveez Maharoof 9 at 22

Dilhara Fernando (12th man) 4 at 51

*Statistics from the 2007 World Cup

KEY DUELS

SHAUN TAIT v LASITH MALINGA

IN A World Cup lasting seven weeks and 51 matches, you need a shot of adrenaline now and then and the two young slingers have, blessedly, provided it. Key weapons for their respective teams, they can strike at three different stages in the innings and are given freedom by their captains to bowl fast and loose. Malinga, 23, grew up catapulting tennis balls on the beach and catches the eye with a woolly, blondtipped hairdo created especially for the World Cup. Tait, a strapping lad who gets around in West Coast footy shorts on his days off, grew up in the Adelaide Hills and developed his unorthodox action through a simple desire to crank up his speed. Malinga has 16 wickets in the tournament despite having missed three games with an ankle injury, while Australia's untamed colt is among the top three bowlers with 23 at 18.47.

MATTHEW HAYDEN v SANATH JAYASURIYA

Both openers are having a batting renaissance, the Australian after he was dropped from the one-day team and the Sri Lankan after a brief retirement. Hayden, 35, has dominated the tournament; Jayasuriya, 37, has illuminated it. Hayden has sweated in the nets for hours on end and then unleashed 621 runs made from pure power and determination, matching Mark Waugh and Sourav Ganguly's record of three centuries in a single World Cup. Jayasuriya has sweated in the middle until his body cramped, with 404 runs at 44.88 and strokeplay straight out of the 1996 charts. Eleven years after the marauder from Matara with the sparkling eyesight, powerful forearms and bat-speed like Tiger Woods helped lift Sri Lanka to its first World Cup, he has a chance to do it again. Equally, the Australians know if they knock Jayasuriya over early they go a long way towards knocking over Sri Lanka.

BRAD HOGG v MUTHIAH MURALIDARAN

Who would have thought that Hogg, the West Australian wrist spinner who can't sit still, would be almost as unreadable as Murali, the Sri Lankan magician? Before the World Cup, Hogg endured an interrupted summer and five wicketless games, but when he arrived in the Caribbean he quickened his pace and recharged his googly and he was away. He has 20 wickets at 15.65 in the tournament, headed only by Glenn McGrath, Murali (with 23 at 13.34) and Tait.

The smiling Sri Lankan, meantime, is as bewildering as ever, having had a late-career reinvention by varying the line of his off-break and confusing top batsmen by making his doosra, the one that goes the other way, almost as quick. He warmed up for the final by spinning New Zealand out with 4-31.

THE PATH TO THE WORLD CUP FINAL

AUSTRALIA

d Scotland by 203 runs

d New Zealand by 229 runs

d South Africa by 83 runs

d West Indies by 103 runs

d Bangladesh by 10 wickets

d England by 7 wickets

d Ireland by 9 wickets

d Sri Lanka by 7 wickets

d NZ by 215 runs

d South Africa by 7 wickets

SRI LANKA

d Bermuda by 243 runs

d Bangladesh by 198 runs

d India by 69 runs

lost to South Africa by 1 wicket

d West Indies by 113 runs

d England by 2 runs

d NZ by 6 wickets

lost to Australia by 7 wickets

d Ireland by 8 wickets

d NZ by 81 runs

RECORD

HEAD TO HEAD

Australia 42

Sri Lanka 19

drawn 2

IN WORLD CUPS

Australia 5

Sri Lanka 1

Odds (TAB Sportsbet)

Australia $1.35

Sri Lanka $3.10

THE PITCH

The Barbados pitch where Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall were kings is the quickest and bounciest in the Caribbean. Glenn McGrath, especially, found the steepling bounce to his liking in running through the hapless Irish in the super eights. Though Tom Moody has moulded a Sri Lankan team that can prosper away from the low, slow pitches of the subcontinent, the Australians will feel right at home digging the ball in at their opponents' ribs.

WHO WILL WIN AND WHY

AUSTRALIA resembles a stampeding rhinoceros. Anything in its path is crushed and shots ricochet harmlessly off its hide. Ricky Ponting's team has made more than 300 every time it has batted first in the tournament, and has not lost more than six wickets in a match. For Sri Lanka the explosive potential of Sanath Jayasuriya is complemented by the serene talents of Kumar Sangakkara and captain Mahela Jayawardene, but there are some soft spots in the middle and lower order.

Both teams possess strong and varied bowling attacks, sharing the top five wicket-takers in the tournament, but if anything Australia has the edge here, too. Sri Lanka's third paceman, with the nervy Dilhara Fernando expected to be replaced by Farveez Maharoof for the final, is a potential weakness. The Australian bowlers hunt as a relentless pack and have bowled out every rival except Bangladesh, in a shortened game. It is hard to detect a weakness, and a record third consecutive World Cup beckons.

-- CHLOE SALTAU

© 2007 The Age

Back to News Index | Back to Home