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Ponting dismisses Collingwood's comments

SOUTHAMPTON: Australia captain Ricky Ponting dismissed Paul Collingwood's rallying cry to England ahead of the old rivals one-day series which gets underway at the Rose Bowl here on Tuesday.

Collingwood, who led England to World Twenty20 final victory over Australia in Barbados last month, urged his team-mates to “go hard” and replicate the form they showed when thrashing Ponting's men by 100 runs in a Twenty20 match at the Rose Bowl at the start of the Aussies' 2005 tour.

That season saw England win an Ashes series for the first time in 19 years but Ponting said the approach of Collingwood, who plays under Andrew Strauss in the 50—over format, ought to be the same for all major matches.

“I would expect them to be aggressive in every game they play,” he told reporters here on Monday.

“Why would you want to come out aggressively in one game and not another? I think that's just words, it does not mean anything.

England may be bidding for a ‘treble' over Australia, having defeated them in last year's Ashes and then the World Twenty20.

But Ponting's team is the reigning world champion in the 50-over game and last year, following its Ashes disappointment, thrashed England 6-1 in a seven-match one-day series before defeating it by nine wickets in the semifinals on the way to winning the Champions Trophy in South Africa.

But this five-match campaign sees Australia without several injured first-choice fast bowlers in Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee and Peter Siddle.

Now the onus will be on the likes of pacemen Doug Bollinger, Clint McKay, Ryan Harris and teenager Josh Hazlewood to fill the gaps.

“You would probably think that we have got our work cut out for us to win this series but we are looking forward to the challenge,” Ponting said.

“We pride ourselves in our depth of squad and the attitude we show when we play for Australia,” the star batsman added.

“We have managed to win some very good series in adversity, particularly the India tour win 12 months ago when we were down to our bones as far as players are concerned.

“I dare the players to surprise us with performances.” — AFP

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