An elated Ricky Ponting spoke to the media after Australia won the DLF Cup
Dileep Premachandran in Kuala Lumpur24-Sep-2006
Brett Lee, declared Man of the Series, got 12 wickets at 9.00 from three games © Getty Images
Ricky Ponting admitted that Australia hadn’t been on their A game thistournament, but was delighted by the manner of their triumph, with theplayers having come in from an off-season that lasted nearly five months.And though they don’t play their first Champions Trophy game for nearly amonth, he reckoned that victory here would stand the team in good steadfor their tilt at the only trophy missing from the cabinet.”I still don’t think we played our best cricket today,” he said. “It was abit difficult to judge with the way the wicket behaved. It’s been prettydifficult for all the batsman. We got a couple of good partnerships at thetop and it allowed Simmo [Andrew Symonds] and Huss (Michael Hussey) toplay some shots at the end. Looking back at the last two weeks or threeweeks, it’s been very successful with the experimentation we have had.”It’s nice to play at a certain level in the final. The last two gameshave been pretty good displays. We have had to guts it out with the bat,and then to dominate in the field and with the ball it has been pleasing.Even the game we lost to the West Indies, we made 270-odd with the bat anddidn’t do too badly with the ball. Lara and Gayle just played well thatnight.”He brushed off suggestions that West Indies had surrendered meekly when itmattered most, preferring instead to focus on his team’s strengths. “Idon’t think any side that plays at this level surrenders at all,” he said.”We happened to bowl very well early on, and as I said at the toss theother evening, West Indies have not chased well at any time through theseries. We knew we’d be on top if we got Gayle and Lara, and thankfully,Brett got Gayle first ball and Lara went shortly after.”Ponting didn’t think that the win was any more satisfying simply becauseAustralia had tinkered with the line-up so much in the group stages. “Wealways believed that any side we put on the field was good enough to win,”he said. “It’s nice to come out here and play at a reasonable level afternot having played at all.”Though Simon Katich struggled dreadfully at the top of the innings,Ponting hinted that he would still be persisted with at the ChampionsTrophy. “It was not an easy wicket to bat on,” he said. “Simon was tellingme it was difficult to get off strike. There was no pace at all with thenew ball, and it was sitting up and hard to get the ball off the middle ofthe bat. He worked his way through that and gave us a pretty goodfoundation.”There was praise too for Damien Martyn, another whose spot in the elevenhas come under pressure in recent times. “I thought he played very welltoday,” said Ponting. “It wasn’t an easy wicket to bat on as I can tellyou. Damien went in and hit everything off the middle. The role he playedtoday was to go in and spend a little time and build a partnership. Itwill do his confidence a lot of good as well.”Martyn and Symonds injected some life into the innings with a 73-runpartnership that allowed Hussey, Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin to lacetogether a few shots at the end, with Symonds’ quickfire half-century onceagain underlying his value to the side. “He’s a pretty complete player,isn’t he?” replied Ponting, when asked to assess a man who was on thefringes till three years ago. “He’s one of the best fielders in the worldas well.”His role over the last couple of years has not changed much. There’s noreason why he can’t move up and down the order. He has been one of thoseplayers who can adapt to the game. He can bat at three or four with thePower Play coming into the game. It is handy to have such versatility inyour team.”
‘He’s a pretty complete player,isn’t he?’ : Andrew Symonds has Ponting’s full backing © Getty Images
Lee, declared Man of the Series, was understandably delighted with hisreturn of 12 wickets at 9.00. Though it was hard to say whether he knew ifhis first delivery was a no ball, Lee beamed when asked about the dramaticstart to the innings. “The plan was to get that ball to swing back in,” hesaid, “but I never thought in my wildest dreams that he [Gayle] would be out thefirst ball.”His opening partner, Glenn McGrath, picked up just one wicket in thetournament, but conceded a mere 71 runs in 26 overs. Ponting wasn’t tooconcerned by the lack of wickets either. “He’s still got a few things towork on,” he said candidly. “If you sat down and spoke to him, he probablywouldn’t be jumping up and down about his bowling. But he still gotthrough six overs for six runs. He just needs to get a few more oversunder his belt.”Australia may yet face West Indies in their opening Champions Trophy gameon October 18, and Ponting’s thoughts were clearly on filling in theonly gap in the resume. “It’s the second biggest one-day tournament thatwe play, and it has eluded Australia,” he said. “We’ve been knocked out inthe semifinals the last two times. I think we have the squad and theplayers to challenge seriously this time, and we’ve played some goodcricket in Indian conditions before.”On this evidence, they’ll take some beating.