"I have never thought about having a break," Ponting said after Australia beat Sri Lanka at the MCG to reconfirm their berth in the tri-series finals. “I am feeling good physically. Whenever I have had a break, I have come back and scored lots of runs. Andrew Hilditch did ask me in Adelaide if I needed the break, but I decided that I would work my way through this phase, that I will keep trying and working hard. I think it is just a question of half an hour or an hour at the crease. Hopefully that will happen on Sunday in Sydney, and things will start to turn around.”
Ponting isn’t the lone struggling Aussie batsman. Andrew Symonds has hardly made a run in the tri-series, too. “It has been a long summer, a lot of cricket, but we have given ourselves every chance to stay fresh and motivated. We all know how good a player Symmo is and can be. He has looked in pretty good touch every time he has gone out, but has not scored runs. He is in the same boat as me, and hopefully both of us will start scoring runs soon.” Exacerbating Ponting's woes was a run-out dismissal as he drove Farveez Maharoof and set off, with partner Michael Clarke not responding. Maharoof dived to his right and fired a return back to the ’keeper to catch Ponting short.
“It tends to happen, when you are in a rut, that you find ways to get yourself out,” he laughed. “I have got some runs to score, there is no doubt about it, and hopefully it will happen over the next few days.”
Blaming the surface for Australia’s inability to get to 200, Ponting said, “It was a difficult wicket, very slow. The pace and bounce was inconsistent, especially with the new ball. Even with 184, we felt that if we got Jayasuriya early, the scoring rate would slow down and we would have a good chance to apply pressure in the middle of their innings. The pitch played pretty true, but it was really hard to get going.”
Mike Hussey, named man of the match for his battling 64 not out, concurred with his skipper. “It was pretty much what Ricky said,” observed Hussey. “It was very difficult, very slow and hard to get the timing. The odd one also took off, it was very easy to make an error in trying to force the pace though it wasn’t so hard to get out once you got in. I felt when we came off that even with 184, we did have a very good total to defend.”

SCORE BOARD

AUSTRALIA
Gilchrist b Vaas 6
(11b)
Hayden c Silva b Maharoof 23
(53b, 3x4)
Ponting (run out) 11
(34b)
Clarke c & b Muralitharan 50
(69b,4x4)
Symonds c S’kkara b Maharoof 4
(6b)
Hussey (not out) 64
(98b, 1x4)
Hopes st S’kkara b Muralitharan 11
(16b)
Hogg c Dilshan b Malinga 4
(4b)
Johnson (not out) 6
(9b)
Extras (B-2, W-3) 5
Total (for 7 wkts, 50 overs) 184
Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Gilchrist), 2-39 (Hayden), 3-44 (Ponting), 4-54 (Symonds), 5-144 (Clarke), 6-166 (Hopes), 7-173 (Hogg).
Bowling: Vaas 10-1-34-1, Malinga 10-1-44-1, Maharoof 10-1-20-2 (w-1), Muralitharan 10-0-37-2, Amerasinghe 10-0-47-0 (w-2).
Scoring pattern: 5 overs: 12/1; 10: 24/1; 15: 39/1; 20: 51/3; 25: 65/4; 30: 84/4; 35: 102/4; 40: 134/4; 45: 158/5; end of innings: 184/7 in 50 overs.
Runs during: Power Play 1: 1-10 overs: 24/1; Power Play 2: 11-15 overs: 15/0; Power Play 3 (three men out): 16-20 overs: 12/2.
SRI LANKA
Perera lbw Clark 1
(11b)
Jayasuriya c Ponting b Clark 0
(1b)
Sangakkara c Symonds b Hopes 22
(59b)
J’rdene c Gilchrist b Bracken 27
(45b, 3x4)
Silva (not out) 16
(47b)
Dilshan (not out) 9
(14b)
Extras (LB-1, W-1) 2
Total (for 4 wkts, 29.3 overs) 77
Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Jayasuriya), 2-3 (Perera), 3-43 (Jayawardene), 4-64 (Sangakkara).
Bowling: Bracken 6-1-13-1, Clark 5-1-8-2, Johnson 7-1-17-0 (w-1), Hopes 7-2-23-1, Hogg 4.3-1-15-0.
Scoring pattern: 5 overs: 8/2; 10: 19/2; 15: 33/2; 20: 44/3; 25: 65/4; end of innings: 77/4 in 29.3 overs. Runs during: Power Play 1: 1-10 overs: 19/2; Power Play 2: 11-15 overs: 14/0; Power Play 3 (three men out): 16-20 overs: 11/1.
Next match: India vs Australia, Sydney, Live on Star Sports from 8.45 am.