Vadodara, Oct 10: Stung by the defeat to India at Chandigarh, Australian captain Ricky Ponting is not in a mood to concede more ground and cautioned the home team that they will treat the fifth cricket one-dayer tomorrow as a virtual final. "The last game was a terrific game of cricket and India have made it 1-2 and the series is alive. Tomorrow is a very important game for us and we would treat it as a final. You know the Australian team is at its best in such games," Ponting said at the match-eve media conference today. But the Australian skipper was also aware of the heat and humidity factor which can trouble the visitors at the Reliance Stadium here.

"We have practiced extra hard today. We made sure we have lot of intakes of fluids as it's very humid out there and the temperature is around 38 (degress celcius)," he said. Ponting felt that the way two six-footers- Andrew Symonds and Mathew Hayden- have imposed themselves on the bowlers with their size and power was an indication of how cricket will be played in future. "Hayden and Symonds are imposing batsmen. Both are six-feet and go down the track to put pressure on the bowlers. With more of Twenty20 cricket coming up batsmen like me may be forced to restrict ourselves to Test cricket," he said with a smile.

The Australian captain felt that the key to his team's success with the bat will be to keep enough wickets when the spinners operate in the middle overs with the new rules making it mandatory for change of balls after 34 overs. "That was the time earlier when the ball used to become soft and darker in colour. Now we get a harder and whiter ball after 34 overs and that's why scores get accelerated in the last 16 overs. We need to keep enough wickets in our hand when the spinners bowl. That will make playing them a lot more easier," Ponting said. Ponting felt that both the teams have kept their over-aggressive posture under wraps after the second game at Kochi in which, according to the Aussie captain, things went a bit over the top.

"In the second game things went a bit over the top. The match referee spoke to both the teams after that match (at Kochi). But that's the way international sports are played these days. However the last two games have been played in the right spirit. I am hoping that it continues and the series ends on the right note," he said. Ponting did not sound too worried about the lean patch his deputy and wicket keeper Adam Gilchrist is going through in the first four matches. "I thought he was looking good in the last two games before getting out. Adam is that sort of a batsman. He will either look very good or very bad. That's the way he has been right through. He has had a long and fruitful session today and we are hoping it's his day out there tomorrow," Ponting said. Ponting predicted a high-scoring game going by the history of this ground and the short boundaries (60 metres).

"Its not a huge playing surface and the straight boundary is only about 60 m. The pitch is an orange sort of clay and I expect it to be a bit slow. But scores of 300-plus have been recorded here in the past and in the last match we played here, India scored 300-plus runs." The Australians have decided to retain the same twelve announced on the eve of the Chandigarh tie and will take a final call either later tonight or tomorrow morning. (Agencies)