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Martyn fires up for Champions Trophy

Source: smh.com.au - September 25, 2006

A few more pieces of Australia's Champions Trophy jigsaw fell neatly into place over the course of its resounding 127-run victory over West Indies in the Malaysian tri-series final.

Led by Brett Lee's 4-24, the Australians defended 6-240 without ever looking in danger of losing, particularly after Lee had collected Chris Gayle's toe and his wicket with a 145 km/h yorker from the first delivery at Kinrara Oval on Sunday night.

That they had as many as 240 to defend was down to the work of Damien Martyn and Andrew Symonds, who both broke out of pre-season drowsiness with a pair of knocks that were of equal volume (52) and value.

Captain Ricky Ponting said Martyn's hand had shown the way for the team after Simon Katich had battled himself, the pitch and the bowlers in scrapping a painful 25 from 66 balls.

"I thought he played very well today, it wasn't an easy wicket to bat on as I can tell you, and Damien went in and hit everything off the middle," Ponting said.

"The role he played was to go in and spend a little time and build a partnership, and it'll do his confidence a lot of good."

Ponting also praised Symonds, who began almost as slowly as Katich before detonating with two sixes and providing the spark for 75 runs in the final 10 overs.

"He's a pretty complete player, isn't he?" said Ponting.

"His role over the last couple of years has not changed much, there's no reason why he can't move up and down the order - he has been one of those players who can adapt to the game.

"He can bat at three or four with the power play coming into the game, and it's handy to have such versatility in your team."

Lee, meanwhile, was humble about a tournament purple patch that reaped 12 wickets at nine apiece and included arguably the two best balls of the series - the yorker to Gayle and a savage off-cutter that did for Virender Sehwag.

"The plan was to get that ball (to Gayle) to swing back in," he said. "But I never thought in my wildest dreams that he would be out the first ball."

Replays showed that the Gayle wicket might have been called a no ball by a more vigilant umpire, but it was hard to fault Lee for a wondrous week of speed.