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Patience and aggression the key, says Ponting

Ricky Ponting has stressed that a patient approach against Sri Lanka's slow bowlers, and an aggressive one against their batsmen hold the key to Australia's chances of success when the one-day series starts off at Dambulla on Friday

Wisden Cricinfo staff
19-Feb-2004
Ricky Ponting has stressed that a patient approach against Sri Lanka's slow bowlers, and an aggressive one against their batsmen hold the key to Australia's chances of success when the one-day series starts off at Dambulla on Friday.
The Australians expect a full hand of spinners to be in opposition, and had a meeting to discuss ways of combating Muttiah Muralitharan on Wednesday night. "We haven't played him too badly in the past," Ponting said. "It's been the other blokes, the part-timers, who have caused us more problems than him."
In the past, Australia have paid for their eagerness to attack the part-time slow bowlers introduced early in the innings. "We've realised these bowlers have come on and it's been a chance for us to get after them early but we've actually got out," he said. "That's one area we've addressed and we'll address it again before tomorrow's game. One thing you don't want to do is go too hard and lose too many wickets and put pressure on the middle order against their spinners."
"The game plan ... is to keep wickets in hand for as long as we can against their spinners and be a bit more patient through the middle of our innings. You know that on these grounds whatever you sacrifice through the middle you can pick up at the end of the innings with wickets in hand."
Such a wait-and-watch approach would be adopted by the bowlers though. They have been given license to target the Sri Lankan batsmen with short balls aimed at the rib-cage. Sanath Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka's most potent one-day threat, has already suffered a broken arm and a broken finger in his tussles with Australia, and Ponting said that he could expect more on the same in the days to come.
"That will still be a plan of ours for sure, especially with the new ball. There's no doubt we'll be testing them out that way. I think with someone like him it (short-pitched bowling) certainly is a bit of weakness. We want to bowl it short near the body - they don't like that too much, the same with the Indian players."
"That's our biggest challenge: to identify weaknesses in opposition batsmen and be able to bowl accordingly. And that's what we didn't do well enough in Australia early on this summer, although we it well in the end. It's important we do that straight away in this series."
On the team selection front, Australia will be forced to leave out either Michael Bevan or Simon Katich. Michael Clarke's slow left-arm spin, and inventive batting have made him a near certainty for the middle order, and it has been suggested that Katich being a more regular bowler might tilt the scales in his favour.
"The good thing about our side at the moment is that we've got a few guys we can rely on to bowl some pretty good part-time spin," said Ponting. "Symonds and Clarke do a pretty good job and I don't think there's any more pressure on Bevo's spot for that reason."