Ponting Not Taken in by England's Spin

Chester-le-street: Ricky Ponting insists Australia do not have a problem against spin bowling despite Sunday's Graeme Swann-inspired defeat to England.

Off-spinner Swann took a career-best 5-28 on a turning Riverside pitch as Australia were bowled out for the lowest score of the One-day series on their way to a four-wicket defeat.

But Ponting pointed to his team's performances in the other six matches of the 50-over series - all won by the tourists - as evidence this was not part of a trend.

With India and Pakistan in Australia's group for the Champions Trophy, they will face plenty of spin in the next week-and-a-half but Ponting is relaxed about the prospect.

"We've played the spinners pretty well through this series," he argued. "Swann had one good result but we played (Adil) Rashid really well and Swann in the first couple of games, so we're not concerned about that.

"I wouldn't expect the wickets in Johannesburg and Pretoria would spin as much as this one but even if they do we've got a number of players who have performed well in spinning conditions. We've played quite a lot of our One-day cricket in sub-continental conditions."

Ponting's 53 - Australia's top score on Sunday - took him to third in the list of all-time One-day run-scorers with 11,756.

But he is more concerned with match-winning performances than weight of runs. "I didn't know that but it's a nice thing to have behind you," he said.

"Hopefully I can make a few more in the next couple of weeks, that's when players like me need to stand up and make big scores."

The 34-year-old was speaking at the end of a long tour of mixed fortunes.

While his side's limited-overs form was impressive, their failure to win the Ashes for the second Ponting-led tour in succession raised questions about his captaincy.

And a summer which began with him as the pantomime villain of the English crowds ended with another generous standing ovation from the Chester-le-Street crowd.

The positives of the trip seem to have had more impact on Ponting than the negatives.

"This has probably been if not the most enjoyable, one of the most enjoyable tours I've been on - and we lost the Test series as well!" he said.