Ponting confident about team bouncing back in third ODI

Sydney, Apr 7 (ANI): Australian Skipper Ricky Ponting has backed his openers Brad Haddin and Michael Clarke to bounce back and has publicly challenged himself to lift his game after being thrashed by South Africa in the second game of their one-day international series.

Australia were blown away by pace duo Wayne Parnell (4-25) and Dale Steyn (4-27) at Centurion as South Africa bowled the tourists out for 131 and scored 3-132 in 26.2 overs in reply.

"We don't need wholesale changes. We need to get those guys to play a little bit better," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Ponting, as saying.

"I'm in exactly the same boat. It's a while since I've made a hundred in one-day cricket (14 months) so I've got to really knuckle down and get stuck in as well and make a big score. Batting in the top order in one-day cricket is all about making big scores and taking the responsibility upon yourself to do that," he said.

"Michael Clarke's had success there, Brad Haddin has been very good and I've been in the No.3 position for a long time. We need to get a lot more consistency out of us for the remainder of this series," he said.

"We've got a few days to try to turn things around. I'm sure that you'll see a better team on Thursday. That was as bad as we've played in a long time," Ponting added.

Australian team arrived in Cape Town in a confident mood and will resume net practice on Tuesday. (ANI)