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England just another game: Ponting
Ricky Ponting said Wednesday's semi-final against England, their oldest international rivals, at Edgbaston was just another game.
Australia captain Ricky Ponting said Wednesday's Champions Trophy semi-final against England, their oldest international rivals, here at Edgbaston was just another game.
World champions Australia have won the last 14 limited-overs matches between the two teams and England's last win was over five years ago, in January 1999 in Melbourne.
Nevertheless, Michael Vaughan's men are an improving side and home hopes are high that England can end their losing streak on Wednesday.
But Ponting said part of the reason for Australia's success against England was an ability to ignore the hype.
"It's another game of cricket," he told reporters at Edgbaston on Monday.
"That's the way we are approaching it. We had a look at some footage of the English players but more importantly we spoke about what we want to do and how we want to approach it."
The team's previous one-day meeting was at last year's World Cup where Australia scraped home by two wickets, although Michael Bevan and Andrew Bichel, the two players who saw Australia home that day, have since been dropped.
