Ponting warns minnows of stiffer competition in Super 8's

Sydney, Mar 28 (UNI) Issuing a blunt directive to minnows Ireland and Bangladesh, Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has warned the two 'under dogs' to lift their games in the Super Eight stages of the World Cup to compete with the superior teams.

After his previous comment regarding the non-inclusion of minnows in the World Cup, the Australian skipper again got into the bad books of his fellow countrymen and Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore following his recent biting statement saying that cricket's ''smaller'' nations must continue to improve to ensure their matches are ''fairly competitive''.

Australia and Bangladesh will clash on Saturday in Antigua in what can be termed as the 'Tigers' first Super Eight match of the mega event and Whatmore is hopeful that his boys can cause more upsets.

''The players will have a wonderful experience to participate in a major tournament against six or seven best teams left,'' the Australia-born Bangladesh coach said.

However, commenting on Australia's only five wicket defeat at the hands of Bangladesh in 2005, a confident Ponting was quoted by the Herald Sun as saying, ''We learnt a lot from that loss, especially not to under-rate Bangladesh.'' ''They have got a lot of talented players there now, so we are going to have to be at our peak to make sure we come away with a win,'' he added.

UNI