da apostaganha： Ricky Ponting said Australia would not be getting too carriedaway after their emphatic 83-run victory over SouthAfrica
Andrew Miller in St Kitts25-Mar-2007
Brad Hogg broke the 160-run partnership between Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers © Getty Images
Ricky Ponting said Australia would not be getting too carriedaway after their emphatic 83-run victory over the world No. 1 SouthAfrica, adding that his team’s bid for a third consecutive World Cupwas only just building up its momentum.”It was a big win for us,” Ponting, whose team now travels toAntigua for the Super Eights stage of the competition, said. “Taking thosetwo points with us and a pretty healthy run-rate as well – it’s anideal start to the tournament. But that’s all it is for us, it’s oneof the games down and we’ve got to focus and turn things round prettyquickly for the big game against West Indies on Tuesday.”Tuesday’s match will be the inaugural fixture at the new Sir VivianRichards stadium in Antigua, and Ponting said his side had to bewary when facing West Indies on home soil. “They’re a very dangerous team, and they should know these conditionsvery well,” he said. “They have great crowd support from all over theCaribbean, and once again it’s one of our biggest games in this WorldCup. Every step you take in this tournament becomesmore and more exciting.”Right at the moment things are going really well,” Ponting said,as Australia have won three matches out of three in the group stages inSt Kitts. “We just wanted to go out there and play a great game today.This win is no more satisfying than any other against South Africa.They’re a good side so whenever we beat them it’s a good achievement.”Though South Africa eventually slumped to a sizeable defeat, it wasnot until Australia’s bowlers had been given a fright in the opening25 overs of the run-chase that they began to take control. “To get through that challenge today willbe great for us,” Ponting, whose bowlers failed to defendconsecutive scores of 330-plus against New Zealand last month, said. “Thelast few times we’ve been challenged that way, we haven’t performed atour best, but today we really kept in there and waited forsomething special.”That something special came courtesy of a brilliant run-out from theboundary’s edge by Shane Watson, and Ponting admitted that the throwhad probably changed the course of the game. “The way we executedtoday after that first breakthrough was terrific,” he said. “We justhung in there, our fielding was good, and once we got a bit of a sniffwe were all over them and went in for the kill.”Whenever a side is chasing a total like that, if they have one littleslip-up or one brilliant piece of fielding from us, then it puts themon the back-foot pretty quickly and that’s what happened today. It’salways hard work chasing big totals like that. South Africa have doneit reasonably well in the past, but in this big game they weren’t ableto do it.”Graeme Smith, South Africa’s captain, was proud of the effort that hisside had put into the chase, but admitted that they had “lost theirway” at crucial moments of the match. “We bowled well at times at thedeath, for little bursts, and even with the bat, going into the 35thover, we were ahead of our targets,” he said. “But we just left ourselves toomuch to do in the last ten. We had opportunities to win and we move onwith confidence to our next game against Sri Lanka.”