It's only in the last year or so that James Hopes has carved a permanent slot for himself in the Australian one-day side. He got a string of chances because of the latest in a long list of injuries to Shane Watson; Hopes has cashed in on his fellow-Queenslander's misfortune with a string of handy all-round performances.

A largely unsung hero in the tri-series, the 29-year-old has made important contributions with heavy hitting down the order and brisk medium-pace. Ahead of Sunday's clash against India, the all-rounder admitted teams enjoyed playing low-scoring games -- the norm in this competition -- as opposed to run fests that generally dot the one-day arena. "All the teams are playing the conditions at the moment," Hopes said on Saturday evening.

"Some of the pitches have been low and slow, and while it is not all pitches' fault, it has got to do with some bad batting and a lot of good bowling, of the highest standard. If scores of 180-200 make for close games, so be it. A lot of players enjoy playing where you have got to scratch out to get to 200 and try and defend it. It's something different for us, all teams are enjoying the challenge."

Struggle

Like India and Sri Lanka, Australia too are struggling for batting form. "Our bowlers are doing an outstanding job at the moment. Why our batsmen are not scoring a lot of runs is given the conditions we are playing in," Hopes offered. "Our batsmen are doing a good enough job and the bowlers are backing it up."

Hopes said the Australian bowling group's mentality was that any total was defendable. "That comes from the couple of games where we didn't get many and we did defend it," he observed. "We have now got the mentality that we have got the best batting line-up in the world and if they are struggling to score freely, our bowlers can stop the other team from scoring runs freely."

Praise for Ishant

Terming Ishant Sharma as one of the two best young bowlers in the world alongside Mitchell Johnson, Hopes looked ahead to a tight contest on the morrow. "India have some of the form bowlers going around, and class batsmen like Sachin and MS (Dhoni). Yuvi scored runs the other day and that's been coming all summer. Once he starts scoring, it makes a difference to their team.

“They will come out hard knowing that if they can beat us tomorrow, they are assured of playing the finals. We will be looking to get any psychological edge we can." Hopes made his international debut in 2005, but it took him a while to find his feet. "My bowling is the same as it is for Queensland. When I first came into the Australian team, I was nervous. “I didn't think I really belonged, I didn't know if I would perform well enough long enough. But it's different now. I am happy that I deserve to be here and I will just keep riding it as long as it goes."