Aussies ready to tame Murali

COLOMBO: The Australian one-day squad has been simply invincible in the recent times, to the extent that they are now being referred to as a team that is miles ahead of the rest, something that skipper Ricky Ponting, however, refuses to accept.
Whether Ponting agrees or not, a look at what the Australians have done right here in this tournament gives a clue to their current position in world cricket.They treated former world champions New Zealand with equal contempt as Bangladesh, handing them a 164-run drubbing in a group clash.
However, they may not find the going all that easy when they run into hosts and former champions Sri Lanka in the second semi-final of the ICC Champions Trophy at the Premadasa Stadium here on Friday. One of the factors for it to be so is that their first big match in the tournament will be their first at Premadasa, and also first under lights. Australia played both their group games at the Sinhalese Sports Club and both were day affairs. To suggest that Australians will find it difficult to switch from a day game to a floodlit affair is like saying kangaroos cannot hop, but a combination of factors — lights, new wicket and a formidable opposition — in a big game like this does have some bearing on the outcome.
Having played on the true SSC wickets, Australian batsmen are bound to find the uneven bounce of the Premadasa wickets where the ball tends to squat occasionally, difficult, specially against slow bowlers. This was seen in both the big games where India were involved this week. First they restricted the Englishmen and then made the South Africans struggle for runs in the death overs while chasing.
Given the domination of Muttiah Muralitharan over the Australians, it will be a bigger task for the team from down under to face their nemesis in his own den on a slow turner. The Aussie coach had said that his batsmen will try to play out Murali rather than attack him, like they had done with Daniel Vettori. But they know that playing out Murali is not the same as Vettori.
Added to Murali, the Australians have to face at least two other slow bowlers — skipper Sanath Jayasuriya and either Upul Chandana or Kumar Dharmasena.