Rule No.1 of winning a match: play to your strengths. Rule No.2: at the pre-match post-conference, don't talk about your weaknesses, because somebody else will. Somebody like Ricky Ponting. This series - during which two motormouth sides have ensured that the verbal build-up to any encounter is as animated as a boxing weigh-in - has just taken a turn from sledging to sarcasm.
Less than 24 hours after more than half the Indian team sought to prepare for Sunday's contest by dropping practice and catching a movie, Ponting said it would have been unlike Australians for his team to do the same. "If you do get a day off, you should use it properly. It's a chance to get to the gym or the pool and get some work done... your best preparation for the game, that's all you should be thinking about," he said. "The Indians know their plans better (than we do)." That, of course, goes without saying.