March 11, 2003	Tuesday	Muharram 7, 1424

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PORT ELIZABETH (South Africa), March 10: Reigning champions Australia will relive the England nightmare when they take on Trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand in the World Cup Super Six match on Tuesday.

It was at the same St George’s Park here on March 2 that Ricky Ponting’s men had their least convincing win of the tournament when they scraped home by two wickets against England.

They now face a New Zealand team which has given them some of their toughest contests in recent years.

New Zealand won three out of four limited overs matches last season to prevent the world champions from reaching the finals of the triangular series in Australia.

Steve Waugh was dropped as Australian one-day captain after that failure and replaced by Ponting. Earlier that season New Zealand shared an away Test series against the Australians.

The St George’s Park wicket was low, slow and awkward when Australia slumped to 135 for eight against England before an unbeaten ninth wicket stand of 73 between Michael Bevan and Andy Bichel took them to victory.

Similar conditions on Tuesday would suit New Zealand’s medium-pacers but Ponting claimed not to be worried about his sides previous struggles against the Kiwis, remembering instead an emphatic 164-run win in their most recent clash at the ICC Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka in September.

Australia are on a world record streak of 13 successive one-day wins and another victory would clinch top spot on the Super Six table with one game to play.

A top spot would mean a Port Elizabeth semifinal against the fourth placed side on March 18.

New Zealand are also on a winning streak, having won five in a row since they lost their opening World Cup match against Sri Lanka on Feb 10, although they forfeited points against Kenya to make their task of qualifying more difficult.

New Zealand have insisted they will not be intimidated by Australia’s awesome pace battalion after Brett Lee was used as a battering ram to deliberately target Sri Lanka skipper Sanath Jayasuriya on Friday.

It was done with such force that Jayasuriya ended up in hospital with an arm injury which almost ended his World Cup and Ponting hinted that Kiwi captain Stephen Fleming would be next in the firing line.

However, the Black Caps skipper was unconcerned.

“We’ve heard it all before,” said Fleming. “They’re just following on from Steve Waugh who was very good at using the media.”

Ponting, whose team are the only ones with a perfect record in the tournament, is adamant that nothing will stand in his way of a second successive World Cup title.

“We need to put pressure on Stephen Fleming,” said Ponting who will again be without the services of Andrew Symonds who has yet to recover from a thigh strain.

New Zealand started the Super Six stage in fifth place with four points but doubled that tally by beating Zimbabwe by six wickets in Bloemfontein on Saturday.

Fleming’s men still need one more win to be sure of reaching the semifinals.

A key factor in the win over Zimbabwe was the return to form of all-rounder Chris Cairns. He had his first productive bowling spell of the tournament, taking two for 16, then clubbed 54 valuable runs.

Teams:

AUSTRALIA (likely): Ricky Ponting (captain), Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Damien Martyn, Darren Lehmann, Michael Bevan, Ian Harvey, Brad Hogg, Brett Lee, Andy Bichel, Glenn McGrath.

NEW ZEALAND: Stephen Fleming (captain), Craig McMillan, Nathan Astle, Scott Styris, Chris Cairns, Chris Harris, Brendon McCullum, Jacob Oram, Andre Adams, Daniel Vettri, Shane Bond, Kyle Mills, Matthew Sinclair, Daryl Tuffey, Lou Vincent.

Umpires: Asoka de Silva (Sri Lanka) and Steve Bucknor (West Indies).

TV umpire: Brian Jerling (South Africa).

Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka).—AFP