Australia ready for final push

Ricky Ponting directs his fielders in a clinical display against South Africa © Getty Images

Australia enter their fourth successive World Cup final on Saturday confident the big occasion will help them improve on their already dominant displays during the tournament.

The reigning world champions claimed their 22nd successive World Cup triumph and stretched their unbeaten run to 28 matches by cruising to a seven wickets semi-final victory over South Africa.

Having dismissed South Africa, their nearest challengers in the official ICC one-day rankings, for a lowly 149, Australia completed their triumph with 18.3 overs remaining to set up Saturday’s showdown with Sri Lanka.

It continued their imperious form throughout the tournament, yet captain Ricky Ponting believes they can get even better for the Kensington Oval finale.

“There’s no doubt that beating South Africa was our best win in this World Cup tournament so far,” enthused Ponting.

“To bowl them out for that total on that wicket when South Africa are a very, very good cricket team was definitely our best performance.

Ponting goes on the attack on Wednesday © Getty Images

“We’ve been building up to a performance like this for the entire tournament and we think we’ve still got some improvement to come in the next game.

“Generally when the bigger games come around is when the Australian team stands up and we did that yesterday and I’m sure we’ll do it again on Saturday.”

Victory in that showdown will ensure Australia’s place in history as the first side to win three successive World Cups and Ponting confirmed that the whole squad are buzzing with anticipation at the prospect.

“I think we’ve maintained really high standards throughout this tournament - there hasn’t been a game or a moment in any of the games where we haven’t stuck to our plans and executed everything well for long periods of time,” he said.

“I know this current group are very excited and we’re getting ready for what’s going to be one of the most enjoyable days of our cricketing lives.”

South Africa will head home from the tournament having failed to find the consistency which enabled them to take over from Australia as number one team in the rankings, a situation which was reversed earlier in the tournament following their shock defeat to Bangladesh.

Only three players reached double figures in Wednesday’s semi-final thrashing with all-rounder Justin Kemp top-scoring with an unbeaten 49.

“I guess you don’t mind losing if you play to your potential and give yourself a real chance,” confirmed disappointed captain Graeme Smith.

“As a team we know what we’re capable of but we’ve been a little up and down in the World Cup.

"We’ve had some outstanding performances and we’ve had some medium performances so I guess the guys are a little disappointed.

“We were two games away from winning the World Cup and not putting in the performance that we were looking for is disappointing but we’ll deal with it.”