Ponting backs Australia's gameplan

At the beginning of the series against Australia, India's middle-order batsman Robin Uthappa had said his team would meet "fire with fire". On the eve of the fourth ODI in Chandigarh with India trailing 0-2, Uthappa admitted that the "intensity levels had dropped" after the World Twenty20 because "they had little time to plan for a tough series".

Keeping the intensity levels high and playing hard cricket is what Ricky Ponting had said aggression was all about. He felt Australia's dominance was a result of them training and preparing harder than most teams and their confident on-field attitude was a result of their meticulous planning. In Kochi, Australia had Yuvraj Singh caught on the drive by Matthew Hayden at short cover for 10. In Hyderabad, however, Yuvraj scored a scintillating 121 off 115 balls and Ponting said a team meeting had been held to form a plan of attack against him.

"We've looked at a few different lines and lengths that we should be bowling to him and some areas that we let him off in the last game. We'll adjust things a little bit and test him in different areas and see what the outcome is."

Ponting had also said the inclusion of India's big three - Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid - in the ODI squad after they opted out of the Twenty20 tournament could work to Australia's advantage because they knew their strengths and weaknesses. That statement was backed up by what followed. Ganguly hasn't had a hit yet but Tendulkar and Dravid have scored only 90 runs between them in five innings.

"If you have a look at a couple of their [Tendulkar and Dravid's] dismissals, it would have been the way that we wanted to get them out, the way we've got them out a few times in the past. We know that they are quality players and on any given day they can be match-winners for India.

"Sachin was just working his way into his innings the last game, setting himself up for a big one, so we have to make sure we don't let him off the hook early on. If Ganguly plays tomorrow, we've got a pretty good idea of where we should be bowling to him and, so far, we've got Dravid pretty well looked after. But you can't expect that to keep happening, these guys are going to come good and play well at some stage and we're prepared for that if they do."

Australia have backed up all their talk with quality performances in the three games so far. It doesn't matter whether the Indians get in the Australians' faces on Monday, what matters is if they'll be able to get on the scoreboard.