October 03, 2009

Australia will play in the Champions Trophy final after thrashing England by nine wickets in the first semi-final thanks to centuries by Ricky Ponting and Shane Watson.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting is not yet satisfied despite his side thrashing England and securing a place in the Champions Trophy final.

Australia won the semi-final by nine wickets thanks to a record unbeaten partnership of 252 between Ponting and opener Shane Watson, who both scored centuries.

Watson's unbeaten 136 and Ponting's 111 not out took Australia (1-258) comfortably past England's 257 with 49 deliveries to spare and earned them a berth in the final at Centurion.

Australia's opponent will be determined by the other semi-final between Pakistan and New Zealand at the Wanderers in Johannesburg.

Ponting said he expected his side to lift in the tournament decider, where Australia will aim to become the first side to successfully defend the Champions Trophy title.

“We won't be happy until we peak in the final,'' he said.

“We played some great cricket today and now it's a day off tomorrow for us and we start getting our head around playing our best game in a month in the final on Monday.''

While Australia's pursuit was awesome, Ponting was also pleased with his bowlers, who wrapped up England's innings in the 48th over.

Peter Siddle (3-55) and Brett Lee (2-46) claimed early wickets after England won the toss and batted on a good pitch, while Watson chipped in with 2-35.

“We've been talking about playing at a level that's going to get us into big games,'' Ponting said.
“Right from the start of the (recent) England (one-day) series we were focusing on being well prepared for the Champions Trophy and getting ourselves in a position like today, where we can play our best cricket when it matters.

“We did that the majority of today, to take wickets early up today and have them 6-101 was a really good start for us.''

A century partnership between all-rounders Tim Bresnan (80) and Luke Wright (48) gave England hope of defending, until Ponting and Watson ruthlessly took the game away.

They struck a combined 22 fours and eight sixes between them and their partnership was the highest by an Australian pair in one-day internationals.

Ponting's century was his 28th and he became only the third player to pass the 12,000-run mark, after India's Sachin Tendulkar and Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya.

Watson's ton was the third of his career and atoned for two ducks to start the tournament.

England's massive defeat was a sour end to what had been encouraging tournament for Andrew Strauss' side.

The loss also meant England remain without a world one-day title.

Australia's win was their seventh from eight games against the old enemy, following their 6-1 one-day series win which concluded the Ashes tour.