04-26-2007
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Australia 'do not fear Sri Lanka'
BBC SPORT | Cricket | Australia 'do not fear Sri Lanka'
Captain Ricky Ponting insists Australia have no fear of Sri Lanka in Saturday's World Cup final despite not having faced their three leading bowlers.
Muttiah Muralitharan, Chaminda Vaas and Lasith Malinga - who have 52 wickets between them - were rested in the seven-wicket Super 8 defeat.
"They had a chance to make a statement in that game but chose not to.
"They played some very good cricket on Tuesday but I really like the match-up," said Ponting.
"We know that Murali will do what he does, we know that Vaas is a very good bowler with the new ball but we have a couple of days to look at them and prepare."
Australia cruised into the final with a seven-wicket win over South Africa and are now unbeaten in 28 World Cup matches.
They have bowled every side out except Bangladesh, as that game was reduced to 20 overs.
"From everything we've done in the last seven weeks, winning our games as comprehensively as we have gives us a lot of confidence," Ponting continued.
"We've got a lot of momentum, a lot of class players who are all in good form at the moment and we're looking forward to the final."
Sri Lanka have in-form batsmen in veteran opener Sanath Jayasuriya and captain Mahela Jayawardene, whose semi-final century took them past New Zealand.
But Ponting believes the extra bounce in the wicket at the Kensington Oval in Barbados will favour Australia's pacemen, who bowled Sri Lanka out for 226 in Grenada last week.
"We executed really well against them last time. They had their bowlers out but they had their full complement of batsmen and we restricted them," Ponting added.
"We just have to pick them to pieces again."
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