Ponting says ICC Champions Trophy title won't make up for Ashes loss

Johannesburg, Oct.5 (ANI): Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting has said that winning the Champions Trophy title tonight will not make up for losing the Ashes to England earlier this year.

"We've done everything that we've needed to do to progress to this stage of the tournament, we're happy with the way we've played our one-day cricket the last few weeks. "It (Champions Trophy) doesn't make up anything. The Ashes are done and dusted and we weren't good enough to win that series unfortunately," Fox Sports quoted Ponting, as saying.

"It's all about making sure we're ready for the big moments and we certainly were ready for the big moments in the semi-final (win over England on Friday), and we'll make sure we're ready for the big moments tomorrow," he added.

Ponting said a tournament victory would mean Australia would look back on their past five months with significance given the young players they had blooded.

"We've got a different group of players here now who are focused on one-day cricket and we've got a lot of one-day cricket to play, with the series in England, this series and the games coming up India. The focus for us has been one-day cricket over the last few weeks and we'll start worrying about Test cricket again ... when the Australian summer starts. But it would be nice to put some icing on the cake at the end of a long five months away from home."

An Australia win would make them the first side to successfully defend the Champions Trophy title, having won this event in India three years ago.

Victory would also mean moving further ahead in the world rankings, in what has largely been a trying year past year given the Test series defeats to India, South Africa and England. (ANI)