Bracken made the difference, says Ponting

Mumbai, Nov 5 (UNI) Victorious Australian captain Ricky Ponting today said the bowling of Nathan Bracken was the difference between the West Indies and his world champion side.

Speaking to the media after Australia won the Champions Trophy for the first time with a thumping eight-wicket win over West Indies, Ponting said ''we knew if the West Indies were put under pressure, we would be able to make them feel the heat and that is what happened. After we took a couple of wickets, they were under pressure and succumbed''.

Ponting praised Bracken saying that ''being a left-hand seamer, I thought it would be a good ploy to use him against the West Indian left-handers and though they were off to a great start, Bracken with the wickets of the two lefthanders Gayle and Chanderpaul brought us back into the match''.

The Australian captain also said that the main positives from this tournament have been the performances of the youngsters and ''though Damien (Martyn) and Glenn (McGrath) have also been playing magnificently,'' it is the youngsters performances which have been the real positives,'' he added.

Ponting further said that the team has developed into a very formidable unit and at this moment he would be happy to take this team to the World Cup.

Defeated captain Brian Lara today blamed the batting for the team's failure. Speaking to mediapersons Lara said that they had a great start but they lost wickets in a heap which made putting up a decent score difficult.

''It happened at Kuala Lumpur in the final and again here today, this is something which we have to learn and improve fast.'' He, however, said that he was satisfied with the overall performance of the team. ''For a team which was not given a chance of making the final, reaching it is an achievement in itself.'' Lara said getting into the finals in Malaysia and here shows ''we are moving in the right direction and are taking giant strides towards becoming what we were in the 80s''.

UNI GS PM VP0003