Ponting: We’ve been on right track

Sethu Maathavan October 06, 2009

"I'm not a huge cricket watcher, particularly when I've got a day off," the Australia captain said.

"They know how to play to their strengths and they are very disciplined. They have certainly upset a few teams. No one even gave them a shot against Pakistan."

"it's probably the first time in a while that we have come in not ranked number one, we were around third or fourth. The experts probably expected us to finish around there as well."

"We've been playing some really good one day cricket and have been building up for the big moments. With England making the semi-final, it shows how good the standard of cricket we had to play against them was to beat them (6-1 in the one day series in England). We've been on the right track from there," explained Ponting. The captain also thinks the team go into the final having ironed out any issues they had in their game. "The one glitch on our radar was against Pakistan with our batting but we sorted that out against England in the semi-final."

"If we win, it will sum up a really good period for Australian cricket. We've introduced a lot of new players in this time and those guys have now played in several games and we are focused on building the team from that. "

"record in these tournaments over the past 10 or 15 years speaks for themselves. They usually do well." New Zealand have reached nine semi finals in ICC competitions, but only two finals - this being the second.

"There's always been a great rivalry between Australia and New Zealand, be it cricket, rugby or even netball."