Ponting praises bowlers for Mohali win

Mohali, Nov 3 : Australian captain Ricky Ponting was happy to level the series 2-2, and praised his bowlers for the visitors' 24-run win in the fourth ODI against India here.

Australia were bowled out for 250 and in reply, Virender Sehwag (30) had blazed away at the start for the hosts and Sachin Tendulkar (40) held the top order together, but Doug Bollinger made timely breakthroughs as India were bowled out inside 47 overs last night.

''It's surely a good win for us, coming up short with the bat, but bowling and fielding very well.

''Peter Siddle got only five overs in the game which means we thought things out really well.

''The series is level again, it has been up and down all the way through and no team has been able to grab the momentum.

''We are looking forward to the rest of the series,'' the 34-year-old Australian skipper said.

Ponting admitted the middle-order failure was a concern.

''We felt we had missed out on a few runs out there with the bat,'' he said.

''But the boys bowled exceptionally well tonight.

''I thought Bollinger was outstanding. He came on and his wickets probably brought us back into the game.'' Bollinger finished with three for 38 from his nine overs and helped restrict the scoring while his fellow left-armer Mitchell Johnson leaked runs. Shane Watson grabbed three wickets in the lower order when India were threatening a late fightback, and combined with two sharp run-outs from Ponting it added up to a strong performance in the field.

''It was good to get a couple of run-outs,'' Ponting said.

''Yuvraj Singh and I had a chat in the field and he called me a little bit slow, but I got one back on him tonight.

We have worked hard on our fielding and I thought it has been at its best in the whole series tonight,'' he added.

--UNI

(c) 2009 Published with permission from United News of India.
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