India played like true champions: Ponting

Australian skipper Ricky Ponting acknowledged that the Indians played like true world champions after losing by seven wickets in the Future Cup Twenty20 International here on Saturday.
"I think the Indians played like true champions, which I suppose they are, with their batsmen constructing the innings well. I think their spinners – Murali Kartik and Harbhajan Singh – did a very good job during the middle overs to restrict us to 166. India deserved to win," Ponting, who top scored for his team, said.
Speaking about the Brabourne wicket, which had some juice in the early part of the match, Ponting said, "I think the wicket was OK but when the spinners came on to bowl the ball was stopping and some of the balls would turn and keep low and some would not. So batting was a bit tricky out there."
"However, I should say that we have enjoyed playing cricket here and have gained some positives during this series," he added.
"Even though we lost the last two matches of this series, we are happy that we could win the ODI series quite convincingly. Players like Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds, Brad Hogg and Mitchell Johnson have come off age and have been performing consistently in this series," he observed.
Admitting that a specialist spinner like Brad Hogg could have made a difference to the outcome of the match, Ponting said, "I thought slow bowlers like Clarke and Symonds would do the trick for us but it did not work out that way as the Indian batsmen really handled them well."

Courtesy:cricket.com
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