Ricky Ponting
The Australian captain talks retaining the Chappell/Hadlee, his winning game plan and team selecting for the final ODI.
On what it means to retain the Chappell/Hadlee…
“You only have to look at New Zealand’s record in there Chappell Hadlee games to know that they are always up for the challenge. I think its been a good effort from our guys actually, after losing the first game and being disappointed the way we played there to be able to turn things around and especially when New Zealand have got off to good starts every game, its sometimes hard to really reverse momentum in One-Day cricket but we have been able to do that really well.
“I thought today was a really good example of that, the fact that they were off to such a flying start and we probably weren’t at our best with the ball early on but we just kept attacking and we set pretty attacking fields again and I just told the bowlers kept hitting their areas and if they keep playing big shots hopefully they will take some chances and that’s they way it worked out.
On taking the pace off the ball and slowing the momentum of the batting team…
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“It’s pretty important out here at this sort of ground, how the new ball sort of flies off the wicket and off the bat at really good pace out there and that’s what they did particularly well today. they used the pace of our new ball bowling really well, hit some boundaries early on and got the momentum going their way. Then when Hauritz and Hopes came in to the game it was a lot harder to score. It was harder to hit those boundaries and when we restricted them it took those boundaries away and created chances which we took. We got a bit of a roll taking wickets the momentum got in our favour. It was always going to be hard for them to post the total that they were looking at posting.
On the effect the 2007 series had on this Chappell Hadlee Series…
“It doesn’t matter how many games in between you have played, you always remember the last Series that you have played somewhere, especially if it’s a losing one and that one was on the eve of the World Cup last time and we were thoroughly out played in that Series and that led to a lot of people probably writing us off and thinking there weren’t much of a chance when we headed over to the World Cup. But we grouped really well over there and obviously played well. We have regrouped really well since we have been here. It’s been a short turn around at times between games.”
On the upcoming, 5th ODI match…
“A Couple of the guys are a little bit sore out of the game tonight so we will see how they pull up in the morning and then we will obviously look at giving probably McKay a game in particular. We have got to start looking ahead to the Test matches now so we will see who we need to give a break, if any and then make the appropriate changes.”
On the speed with which the momentum shifted…
“Its happened in a few games this series as well, where we have been able to get on a bit of a roll taking wickets and probably exposed their middle order to a certain degree but a lot of it comes down to the bowlers and how they react. We have tried to just keep attacking, we feel in these conditions over here on these wickets and these grounds being as quick as they are, if you don’t take wickets through those middle overs you really are exposed at the end of the innings. That’s been my philosophy through this series, to try and keep attacking from first ball through to 30 over mark and try and put them out of the game before we get to the end and that’s what we have been able to do, so the bowlers have done a great job there.”
“I think as the series has gone on our fielding has got better as well, we have been a bit sharper in all aspects of our game and once you put teams under the sort of pressure we had them under today from 10 or 12 overs on it becomes pretty hard to get back in to the game.
Full credit to all the guys today, the way they hung in there and our wicket taking ability through the middle has been the difference through the game.
On looking ahead to the Test…
“They have made a lot of changes most games. There were three changes again today, a couple of their injured guys coming back in so they have had ins and outs right the way through. We have been lucky so far that we have played an unchanged team other than Clarke right the way through so that’s good for us. Now that the opportunity presents itself for this last game, it’s important that we do start looking ahead to the Test matches. We are in pretty good shape, one game to go and then a few days before the first Test so we will do whatever we have to do to recover and get ready for that first Test match.”
