September 29 Sunday 2002
Easy build-up may have cost Australia: Ponting

COLOMBO: Australia's one-day captain Ricky Ponting thinks his side's excellent form heading into the Champions Trophy semi-final against Sri Lanka may have counted against them in Friday's seven-wicket thrashing. 

Australia cruised through the qualifying matches, beating New Zealand by 164 runs and Bangladesh by nine wickets -- wins that followed an unbeaten one-day series against Kenya and Pakistan in Nairobi. But when Sri Lanka put Australia's batsmen under pressure on Friday they were found wanting. "We've played exceptionally well apart from 
this match," Ponting told reporters. 

"But we've not played a full 50 overs yet as we'd been able to knock the opposition off in 30 or 40 overs in the last few matches. "Maybe we weren't match-hardened, who knows, but all the same I couldn't have been happier with how we performed in Kenya and here, we just didn't perform in this match." The result was similar to the two sides' 
previous meeting three years ago, when Sri Lanka won by eight wickets at the same R.Premadasa Stadium in the final of a triangular series also involving India. 

PLAYED DOWN Ponting played down suggestions Sri Lanka were now Australia's bogey side and looked forward to their next one-day meetings, in Australia in December and January. "We'll see how they go when they come to Australia this year before we make a judgement on whether they've got the wood on us," said Ponting. "We've got that series coming up and I'm sure we can bounce back." Ponting said the side's weekend break in the Maldive islands ahead of the match had nothing to do with their defeat. "We trained very well for the three days leading up to the match," he added. "We were fully prepared but just nowhere near our best." 

Australia will now start to prepare for the first test of their three-match series against Pakistan, which gets underway in Colombo on Thursday. The second and third tests of the series will take place in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. The series is being played in neutral countries amid security fears. Test captain Steve Waugh and 
batsmen Mark Waugh and Justin Langer have linked up with the squad on duty for the Champions Trophy. All-rounder Shane Watson and batsmen Michael Bevan and Jimmy Maher will return to Australia. Bevan suffered a hamstring injury during Australia's defeat on Friday but it is not thought to be serious.