Tendulkar great but expect no concession from us, says Ponting

Hyderabad, Sep 30 (PTI) Australian skipper Ricky Ponting
Tuesday vowed to make life difficult for Sachin Tendulkar in
the upcoming Test series, which is likely to see the Indian
replace West Indian batting great Brian Lara as the highest
run accumulator in cricket's longer version.

Ponting and his teammates had no doubt whatsoever that
it is just a matter of time before Tendulkar, with 11,877 Test
runs under his belt, overtakes Lara, who quit the game with
11,953 runs against his name.

Those 77 runs, however, would not be easy to come by,
vowed Ponting.

"Hopefully not (in this series)," Ponting said in reply
to a query on Tendulkar reaching the milestone.

"I don't have too many great memories of him, for he
tends to score heavily against us," quipped the cheeky
Australian.

"But I have the highest regard for him. Sachin is a true
champion, one of the all-time greats of the game and reaching
this milestone would be a great reward for him," Ponting said.

"But we are here to win and know pretty well that we have
to get rid of him early if we are to win here. We have come
here with a few plans for him and hope our plans would click,"
Ponting, here for the warm-up match against the Yuvraj
Singh-led Board President's XI, told reporters here Tuesday.

Ponting would rely most on spearhead Brett Lee to silence
Tendulkar in the four-match Test series and the speedster said
he is up to the challenge.

"He is a world class player who has proved himself over
more than a decade. You talk about (Don) Bradman, you talk
about Lara, Sachin and probably Ricky...It's an honour to bowl
to Sachin and getting his wicket is the ultimate prize," Lee
said.

"We have done our homework and have devised some plans
and I hope we can execute those," added Lee.

Fellow pacer Mitchell Johnson said he has his fingers
crossed but was eager to have a go at Tendulkar.

"I don't want to make any prediction but I can say that
it is going to be a great challenge and it will be hard for
both," said the nippy left-arm pacer.

Batting duo of Phil Jacques and Simon Katich, however,
shied away from discussing Tendulkar's imminent milestone and
said the team needed to think more about its own preparation
for a demanding series.

"At the moment we are focusing on our preparation and
when the series starts, I'm sure we'll talk about the
opposition," Jacques said.

Katich echoed more or less the same view and said
Australia needed to ensure that all its players have got their
game in perfect shape before thinking about opposition.

"Lot of preparation is on at the moment to get our own
game in order. Once we are happy with the way we are
processing, then I'm sure we will plan for the Indians," he
said. PTI AY-SJR
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