I am not surprised on what we have done so far: Ricky Ponting

St Peter's, Antigua, Apr 1 (UNI) Australian skipper Ricky Ponting hailed his pace bowler Glenn McGrath for setting a new World Cup record and lavished praised on his team mates for the superb showing by them in this tournament so far.

McGrath scalped three Bangladesh batsmen yesterday to become highest wicket taker in the history showpiece event.

''I am not surprised what we have done so far in the World Cup.

It has been a good team effort,'' Ponting told newspersons after his team recorded a crushing ten wicket win over Bangladesh.

''It is great to have a bowler like McGrath in your team, he is fantastic teammate, a great player and is our trump card,'' he said.

''It feels good to have a record holder in your team and McGrath richly deserved that honour.'' On his team's resounding success in the tournament so far, he said, ''Though it may look easy but it is not so easy. No game is easy. It is a big tournament. There is a lot that goes with playing for Australia.

''Each time you cross that white line and walk out in Australian colours, you have to do the best for yourself and the team. I have said before that I have not been surprised by what we have achieved so far in this competition.

''We have played somewhere near our best, but this is early in the tournament. No one is handing out trophies at this stage. We must keep a lid on things, look at areas in which we are deficient and address those issues quickly. There are no easy games at all in this competition, and definitely not from here on.'' he explained.

He did not hide his happiness with the way his team has been beating the rivals saying, ''I am pretty happy with the way things are going. There is still room for improvement, obviously, but we have been pretty sharp in all areas. The fast bowling has been very good, and so has Hogg. Symonds needs to do a bit of work on his bowling. We are executing things really well, and that is important.

You can have all your strategies in place, but unless you execute them well, it is of no use. We are making sure we play attention to detail.'' He was asked whether he was worried that a truncated game -- as this 22-over match -- would have help Bangladesh better, he replied: ''Would I go in thinking we would lose? No way. That is a dumb question, mate.'' ''We were confident that the better team would win, regardless of the number of overs. I never thought a 22-over match gave them any more of a chance. I knew that we would be reasonably comfortable in chasing down any total they would post, especially given the composition of the side.'' Asked about the condition of Shane Watson, who had to leave the field after pulling the muscle, Ponting said, ''I am obviously disappointed for him,'' ''It is really a minor strain, he will have a scan tomorrow morning to find out the extent of the strain. Fortunately, if there is anything fortunate about it, we have a week before the next game to try and get him ready, we hope he will be available for the next match.'' Australia take on England next Sunday at the same venue, and will have three days of no practice till Tuesday.

''If we do lose Shane, we will be losing an all-rounder, which will necessitate a reshuffle to our side. If you lose an all-rounder, it tosses things around a bit. If he is going to miss the next game, we must think what is the best line-up we can put out. At the moment, he is more like a fourth quick who is also a pretty good bat.'' ''Every thing said, I have told my players not to lower their guards, we just can't afford to get tripped,'' he added.

UNI