Murali and Malinga not playing in today's match.The two bowlers can destroy the Australlian line up..Is Srilanka intentionally not playing these bowlers today to use as surprize weapons in the finals(if it happens)
Melbourne: Batsmen around the world may struggle to demystify Muttiah Muralitharan but Australian skipper Ricky Ponting says his World Champion side knows how to read the wily Sri Lankan off-spinner.
Ponting claims that Muralitharan has himself admitted that the Aussies handle him better than any other side in the world.
"I think we play him very well. He has actually said to Andrew Symonds in the past - he has played at Lancashire with Symmo [in 2005] -- that he thinks Australia play him better than anyone else in the world, which is a good rap," Ponting was quoted as saying in the Sydney Morning Herald.
"You just have to be so wary of him and know what he is going to do. He is a wicket-taking machine and he keeps things really tight. If he gets one, he generally gets two or three pretty quickly. He is hard to face when a new batsman comes to the crease," he added.
Muralitharan has been his usual destructive self at the ongoing World Cup and has so far picked up 15 wickets at an average of 17.13
Ponting said though his side considered Muralitharan a very threatening bowler, they had a plan in place to check him.
"He is a very, very good bowler. We've got a lot of respect for him. With a bowler of his pace, he's too quick to try to read it as it is coming down. He changes the seam angle just to confuse you if you try to watch the ball in the air. You can't pick him off the wicket, because he's too quick to do that as well," he explained.
