Murali,Malinga make Sri Lanka our toughest opponent: Ponting

Australia will rely on its three in-form seamers - Mitchell Johnson,Brett Lee and Shaun Tait - to counter Lankas spin trap.

Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has made it clear that his team will rely on its three in-form seamers,Mitchell Johnson,Brett Lee and Shaun Tait to counter Sri Lankas spin trap and pace spearhead Lasith Malinga when they play on Saturday.

The Group A match in Colombo will be a repeat of the controversial 2007 World Cup final when Australia won by 53 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis formula.

Off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan,slow left-armer Rangana Herath and spinner Ajantha Mendis are all likely to face Australia.

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Sri Lanka will also look to Malinga,who took a career-best 6-38 in the thrashing of Kenya by nine wickets.

We expect Sri Lanka to be a very tough contest. I think theyll be our toughest contest to date in this tournament, Ponting said.

So far,Australia has beaten Zimbabwe by 91 runs and New Zealand by seven wickets,taking their World Cup-winning streak to 25 matches.

Australia have beaten Sri Lanka in six of their seven World Cup matches,the only loss coming at Lahore in the 1996 final.

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Ponting insisted that Australia will look to its three in-form seamers,Johnson,Lee and Tait.

I made it really clear at the start of this tournament that I dont care who were playing against or where were playing,if we get these three guys playing as well as we can,then its going to be hard work for any team batting against us, Ponting said.