Ponting to make record WC appearance

Ahmedabad: Ricky Ponting will create the Australian record of making most appearances in World Cup matches when he will take field against Zimbabwe on Mondady and will overtake former teammate Glenn McGrath in the process.

Ponting, who is also eying rare feat of winning three World Cup trophies as skipper, is tied with McGrath on 39 appearances till date.

West Indies' legend Clive Lloyd led his country to two World Cup title.

Ponting is tied with McGrath on 39 WC appearances till date.

Ponting said he was unaware of this upcoming landmark.

"I did not know about it (about 39 appearances in WC).

These are nice things to look back upon. But I'm excited to be playing cricket again after 5-6 weeks on the sidelines. The real test starts now. Let's see how far we can go from here," said the Tasmanian, who has scored 1537 runs at an average of just over 48, in previous editions.

Ponting is back to playing competitive cricket after a finger injury forced him to miss the ODI series against England at home that Australia won 6-1 under his deputy Michael Clarke.

Clarke is also on the cusp of a personal landmark as he needs 72 more runs to complete 6000 runs in ODIs and become the ninth Australian to do so.

Australia also won the previous meeting against Zimbabwe at this venue, by 13 runs in 1998, and Monday's clash would be the 28th between the two, with the former coming out trumps on all occasions barring the 1983 World Cup tie at Nottingham.

There was no result in one match.

The ODI match at this venue is also the ninth fixture played under lights with teams batting second having a slight edge of win-loss ratio (5:3).

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