Ponting's plan comes together

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Ponting had been plotting a quickfire dismantling of the Irish batting all week rather than attempt to use the Super Eight match to provide his under-employed batsmen with more time in the middle - but did not let on to his team.

"We wanted to look after our run-rate in this game if we could, and the best way to be in control of that is to bowl first, hopefully get the team out cheaply and then get the runs quickly," said Ponting.

The reigning champions, gunning for an unprecedented third straight title, pulled two points clear of their rivals with a nine-wicket victory which also inflated their net run-rate considerably.

After winning the toss, Ponting threw the new ball to veteran Glenn McGrath and firebrand Shaun Tait, whose early combination hurried the part-timers to 91 all out in 30 overs at the Kensington Oval.

It then took Australia only 12.2 overs to overhaul the target and guarantee a semi-final place before the match's scheduled break.

Ponting added: "I thought there would be a little bit in the wicket, it was a little bit inconsistent and we bowled really well and used the bounce that was there.

"We've got what we needed to get out of this game: I don't think we really needed anyone to have a glorified net session as such.

"Our top-order batting has been good during the tournament, we wanted to give Mike Hussey and Andrew Symonds some time in the middle and we didn't think we would get them out for 90.

"We thought they might get 150 or something like that, and then those guys would have got some more time out there. But we did what we had to do, which is pretty pleasing. Sometimes in a game like this you can be a little bit off the pace and just go through the motions but we were far from that."