Thaindian News

Colombo, Mar. 5 (ANI): Victory over Sri Lanka in Saturday’s Group A World Cup clash would give Australia a perfect record after three matches in the tournament and would likely ensure a first or second seeding for the quarter-finals.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting said that his side hopes to blunt the Sri Lankan bowling attack during the game, especially slinger Lasith Malinga, who snared 6-38 against lowly-placed Kenya in the last game.

Ponting admitted that some of Malinga’s yorkers were ‘perfect’, but believed the presence of two renowned straight drivers, Shane Watson and Brad Haddin, at the top of their batting order could not only nullify Malinga, but exploit his attacking approach.

“He (Malinga) is going to run in and try and hit the stumps, and as a batsman you can set up for that knowing he will bowl full and straight and use his slower ball and the occasional bouncer,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Ponting, as saying.

He added: ‘As a batting group, we’d like to think we can put a bit more pressure on him than the Kenyans did. If he happens to stray a bit with his length, we will pick him off. ‘Murali’ [Muttiah Muralitharan] is another key for them, and we had a look at Mendis. We’re expecting him to play against us.’

Australia have traditionally taken a safety-first approach against Murali but Ponting said he and the other batsmen had to be ready to attack the revered off-spinner if his accuracy faltered.

An injury-free run since the February 25 match against New Zealand is likely to result in Australia selecting an unchanged team. A key responsibility for pacemen Brett Lee, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson will be to make early inroads into the Sri Lankan top order.(ANI)