Ponting - Unbeaten run is irrelevant - Sport in brief

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The reigning champions have swept all before them to stand within one match of reaching their fourth successive World Cup final and two wins away from becoming the first side in history to win the tournament three times in succession.

But despite their dominance of the competition so far, Ponting remains cautious, saying: "We've known right the way through that by the time you get to this stage it doesn't matter what has happened beforehand; it all comes down to 100 overs on the day and if we happen to win, great, but if we lose there'll be no-one to blame but ourselves."

He added: "For us, winning nine games in a row to this point means we can gain a lot of confidence from that. We can get a lot of know-how about how to play in these conditions, and although we haven't played in St Lucia yet I wouldn't expect it to be too different."

Australia's dominance has been such that they have the two leading run-scorers in the tournament - Matthew Hayden and Ponting - while Glenn McGrath, Brad Hogg, Shaun Tait and Nathan Bracken are among the top seven wicket-takers. They are also unbeaten in their past 27 World Cup matches stretching back to the 1999 tournament in England and have won their past 21 games.

South Africa have taken to using buzz words in an attempt to relax their squad in the build up to such a massive game.

Coach Mickey Arthur has desperately tried to replicate the relaxed atmosphere among the squad as they had before last Tuesday's nine-wicket hammering of England which sealed their place in the last four.

"We've tried to replicate what we did and the state of mind going into the England game," he explained.

"In that match I think we were the best we've ever been and we've tried to keep them in a calm state because that was exactly how they were going into the England game. With that calmness comes a confidence and with the confidence comes a patience and that is how we're approaching the semi-final.

"The guys are very confident at the moment. I haven't been involved in a team leading up to a game of this magnitude and seen a team so calm."