They have Ponting, an aggressive player by nature, to thank for the large total on a good batting pitch. Ponting's full range of shots were on display at the Feroze shah Kotla as he powered his way to a quickfire century. He showed intent from the moment he walked to the crease as he looked to dominate the bowling and give Australia an early advantage. The bad balls flowed from the Zimbabwe bowlers as Ponting forced them into error by attacking at every opportunity with shots on both sides of the wicket.

Ponting, known to his teammates as "Punter", is good mates with Mark Waugh, who is also partial to placing a bet on four legged animals. They have a good understanding and enjoy batting together, which is not surprising as theirapproach to the art is very similar. With Ponting batting so aggressively, it allowed Waugh to play his own game, the ideal situation for Australia as they generally win when the elegant opener makes a big score.

To be taken seriously as good chasers, they need to successfully overtake one of these big targets rather than continue to push the opposition to the limit without winning. Like Australia, Zimbabwe lost an early wicket and for a while they had no one prepared to try and dominate like Ponting. However, the consistent Grant Flower and Murray Goodwin steadily built up momentum and then when Andy joined brother Grant, Zimbabwe began to look like contenders rather than pretenders.

They played sensibly, mixing boundaries with good running between wickets until Shane Warne finally got a flipper on-line and re-arranged Grant's furniture. Then, with the match hanging in the balance, the umpire went to the videotape for a run out appeal against Andy Flower, following a magnificent stop by Mark Waugh.Flower was given out, hung on circumstantial evidence in my book. The third umpire must have assumed what had happened and that is ridiculous -- officials shouldn't be guessing at any time and certainly not when they are sitting in the stands.