Ponting on verge of overtaking McGrath; to play 40th WC match

Ahmedabad, Feb 20 (PTI) Ricky Ponting will create theAustralian record of making most appearances in World Cupmatches when he will take field against Zimbabwe tomorrow andwill overtake former teammate Glenn McGrath in the process.

Ponting, who is also eying rare feat of winning threeWorld Cup trophies as skipper, is tied with McGrath on 39appearances till date.

West Indies'' legend Clive Lloyd led his country to twoWorld Cup title.

Ponting said he was unaware of this upcoming landmark.

"I did not know about it (about 39 appearances in Cup).

These are nice things to look back upon. But I''m excited to beplaying cricket again after 5-6 weeks on the sidelines. Thereal test starts now. Let''s see how far we can go from here,"said the Tasmanian, who has scored 1537 runs at an average ofjust over 48, in previous editions.

Ponting is back to playing competitive cricket after afinger injury forced him to miss the ODI series againstEngland at home that Australia won 6-1 under his deputyMichael Clarke.

Clarke is also on the cusp of a personal landmark as heneed 72 more runs to complete 6000 runs in ODIs and become theninth Australian to do so.

Australia also won the previous meeting against Zimbabweat this venue, by 13 runs in 1998, and tomorrow''s clash wouldbe the 28th between the two, with the former coming out trumpson all occasions barring the 1983 World Cup tie at Nottingham.

There was no result in one match.

The ODI match at this venue is also the ninth fixtureplayed under lights with teams batting second having a slightedge of win-loss ratio (5:3).