Andrew Symonds ready to step up

Profiles / Editor / 12 April 2007 / Leave a Comment

Symonds has warned Australia's World Cup opponents he is ready to spend some more time at the crease if needed.

Symonds has been forced to watch on while his big-hitting countrymen Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke have dominated the run-scoring.

Symonds instead has been forced to switch his focus to his other discipline, bowling, while being limited to cameos of 18, 13, and 28 not out as the Aussies continue to defy their pre-tournament detractors.

"If I'm not getting a hit, it usually means we're winning every game," Symonds told AAP.

"But I suppose when it gets down to semi-finals and important games in the Super Eights, I was a bit toey myself to get out there and see how I was actually going.

"Out in the middle I felt balanced and I was seeing the ball crisply. So I've now got some confidence if required to play a long innings in the next week or so."

Next up for hot favourites Australia is Ireland in Barbados on Friday and Symonds is again expected to feature if Brad Hodge is picked at No. 7 and only four specialist bowlers are chosen.

Australia will go into the game as overwhelming favourites but Symonds has warned his team-mates that an upset is possible.

"If they have a day out, they could make life difficult for us," he said.

"So we'll be looking to have a clinical and professional day out against them and hopefully we just win that game and we can move on."

Australia, victorious in their opening six World Cup fixtures, are the overwhelming 1.02 favourites to triumph against Ireland (42), while there is no price available on Ricky Ponting's men booking their expected place in the last four in the West Indies.

Australia are the 2.28 favourites to win an unprecedented third consecutive World Cup, with the chasing trio of South Africa (5.5), New Zealand (5.6) and Sri Lanka (5.8) pushing hard to derail their efforts.