“Our batting has been doing the job. We got 300-plus in the first two games and 290 today. I don’t know if the mental stuff comes into play at all.

‘Train harder’
We feel we train harder and prepare better than any other team in the world and when you do that, you are often on the right side of the result.

“We have started this series the way we wanted to. The last two results have gone our way, and we have played good cricket.

But we can’t afford to rest on that. We will keep trying to improve every game. Saying that, we are happy to be where we are now — 2-0 up with four to play,” the Aussie skipper said after the 47-run win on Friday.

Pat for Yuvraj
In victory, Ponting was magnanimous in his praise of Yuvraj Singh, who made a masterly 121.

“He played beautifully,” the Tasmanian observed. “It was a very good ball-striking innings on a pitch where to come out and start striking the ball wasn’t all that easy. We have seen it before, we know how dangerous he can be. When he is in that mood, no ground is big enough for him. He was too good for us on the day, his innings was what kept India in the game.

“India must have thought they had a chance till such time that he was in. He did a very good job in the last 5-6 overs before he got out, farming the strike and hitting the big shots.

With someone as dangerous as him in the middle, you feel you always have a chance.

But we kept taking wickets at the other end, and kept the pressure up.”

Ponting said batting second in India wasn’t the smartest choice to make. “Here in India, chasing big totals is really hard because the wickets do die a lot. They lose pace and bounce, and if you can put up a big total batting first, you can always put pressure on the opposition.” Andrew Symonds, man of the match for his blazing 89, concurred with his captain.

“Finding the boundaries here in the middle overs is difficult, so you need to work it around and pick up ones and twos.”

Unlike game two in Kochi, this game witnessed no bad blood. “It was a much more sportsmanlike, friendly atmosphere today,” Symonds acknowledged.

“I think both teams realised that things had got a little out of hand in the second game. Both chose to play within the rules, and that was nice to see.”