England just another game, says Ponting

21 Sep, 2004

Australia captain Ricky Ponting said Wednesday's Champions Trophy semi-final against England, their oldest international rivals, here at Edgbaston was just another game.
World champions Australia have won the last 14 limited-overs matches between the two teams and England's last win was over five years ago, in January 1999 in Melbourne.
Nevertheless, Michael Vaughan's men are an improving side and home hopes are high that England can end their losing streak on Wednesday.
But Ponting said part of the reason for Australia's success against England was an ability to ignore the hype. "It's another game of cricket," he told reporters at Edgbaston on Monday. "That's the way we are approaching it. We had a look at some footage of the English players but more importantly we spoke about what we want to do and how we want to approach it."
The team's previous one-day meeting was at last year's World Cup where Australia scraped home by two wickets, although Michael Bevan and Andrew Bichel, the two players who saw Australia home that day, have since been dropped.
Ponting added: "England have done a lot of good things over the last 12 months in both forms of the game. But saying that, we've performed very well against them over a long period of time in one-day cricket."
He also said all his players bar left-arm wrist spinner Brad Hogg (strained left hamstring tendon), who played county cricket at Edgbaston for Warwickshire this season, were fit.
Looking ahead Ponting indicated Australia might select a four-pronged pace attack of Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz with Lee and all-rounder Shane Watson battling it out for the last spot in the starting eleven.
"I think we've got in our squad at the moment four very good fast bowlers who have all done fantastically well over a long period of time in all conditions. If we get a wicket that seams around a little bit it will suit us more than England.
"Four fast bowlers on that wicket out there if there is a bit of assistance could be the way we go. But Shane Watson played the last game (a seven-wicket win against New Zealand).
"He can do a handy job with the ball, he's very good in the field and a very handy lower order batsman. Obviously the selection will probably come down to those two for tomorrow, Watson and Lee. We'll see what the wicket has to offer before making a decision."
And as far as England were concerned, top-order batsman Ponting insisted Australia had no qualms about facing Flintoff, recently crowned ICC One-Day International Player of the Year. "We spent a little bit of time on him but no more than anybody else in our team meeting. "Obviously, he's been a fantastic player for England over the last 12 months in both forms of the game, particularly his batting in one-day game of late has been outstanding. We've got a few things we might try against him tomorrow."
Australia and England played cricket's first Test match back in 1877, at Melbourne and series between the two nations have been at the heart of cricket's international programme ever since.
Even though Australia have won the last eight Ashes series, Ponting insisted next year's edition in England - which English fans are relishing after seeing their team win seven straight Tests in 2004 - was one that excited his team as well.
"We always like playing against England and playing an Ashes series in England is what every Australian loves doing. But we've got a lot of cricket before then with a very big series in India coming up and a lot can happen in the next 12 months.
"But I'm sure it (the Ashes) is going to be a challenging series for both teams," he added.

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