'They are playing as well as anyone'
New Zealand a serious threat - Ponting
Cricinfo staff
April 16, 2007

Ricky Ponting considers New Zealand as big a threat to Australia's World Cup defence as any team and said their fighting spirit would make them a tough opponent. Australia's Super Eights campaign finishes with what could be two of their hardest matches, against Sri Lanka on Monday and New Zealand on Friday.

Ponting said New Zealand, who were undefeated at the tournament until beaten by Sri Lanka on Thursday, had prepared well for the Caribbean. "New Zealand are playing as well as anyone at the moment," Ponting told AFP. "They've been playing pretty much one-day cricket almost 12 months now, they've played hardly any other cricket. They've been focusing wholly and solely on this event."

New Zealand were disappointing in the CB Series, finishing third to England and Australia, but made a stunning turnaround at home to win the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy 3-0 in February. "They played some unbelievable cricket, scored some big runs and chased some big totals down," Ponting said. "There's no doubt at the moment they've got a bit of confidence and when they are actually at full strength, which they are pretty close to now, they are a very competitive side."

Along with Sri Lanka and Australia, New Zealand have already qualified for the semi-finals but they will be desperate to make up for their past failures - they have lost semi-finals at four previous World Cups. Ponting believes with Scott Styris averaging over 100 and Daniel Vettori looking dangerous, New Zealand have a great chance of reaching the decider for the first time.

"They love a fight, they love a scrap," Ponting said. "They are a pretty proud team and I've got a lot of respect for them." Shane Bond is another who regularly troubles Australia and Ponting said the batsmen would discuss how best to handle him.

"At the last World Cup he took 6 for 23 against us in Port Elizabeth and he got a hat-trick against us this year," Ponting said. "He's one of those guys, you have to pay the utmost attention to. He's very dangerous with the new ball."

While the threats posed by New Zealand and Sri Lanka have been well documented by Australia, Ponting said he would also be wary of the fourth semi-finalist, likely to be England or South Africa. England turned around their disastrous Ashes tour to win the CB Series in February and although they are again battling for form, Ponting said another recovery was possible.

"Our closest, hardest game so far has been the England game," he said. "South Africa aren't playing their best cricket at the moment. England probably haven't played their best cricket through this tournament yet either. England, having been there and done it before in the Commonwealth Bank series, when everyone had written them off, know they have a chance of doing it again."

Ponting said South Africa's surprise loss to Bangladesh was not a true indication of their potential and despite their past World Cup disappointments, they too would be a challenging semi-final opponent. "They probably didn't get the best of the conditions the other day but that can happen," he said.

"They've probably lost a couple more games than I thought they would in this part of the tournament. But if they get everything right, I know how dangerous a side they can be." .

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