Ponting bemused by Lee snub

Ponting bemused by Lee snub

Australia captain Ricky Ponting was surprised Brett Lee was not rewarded with a man-of-the-match award for his hat-trick against Kenya.

Lee finished with figures of three for 14 off eight overs, including the triple-strike - only the fourth in World Cup history - in the fourth over to reduce Kenya to 3-3 at one point.

When you're bowling at my kind of pace, there is always a danger that someone is going to get hurt

Brett Lee

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But his performance was overshadowed by Kenya veteran Aasif Karim, who took three wickets in the space of nine balls as the world champions stuttered to a five-wicket win.

"I'm bemused about the man-of-the match thing," Ponting said.

"We have won all of our matches but missed out on three awards.

"[Lee is] bowling very well and he got the rewards which he probably hasn't got in the other games.

"A gold watch would have been nice."

Ponting was one of the three batsmen to fall to Karim's left-arm spin, lbw in the 16th over.

And Kenya's batsmen could claim a moral victory too, having recovered to bat out their 50-over quota, reaching 174-8.

"I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't go through them when we had three wickets down," Ponting admitted.

"And I'm disappointed that we lost wickets as we did but these things happen in one-day cricket."

Instead, he insisted the shaky performance was a good build-up for their semi-final against Sri Lanka in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday.

"We've played two matches at Port Elizabeth already so we know the conditions," he went on.

Lee's performance was overshadowed by Karim

"I have spoken to the groundsman and he has said it should be a better wicket than it has been so we are looking forward to it."

Australia's batsmen have struggled against both England and New Zealand at St George's Park, but went on to win both matches on their way to a perfect record so far.

Lee's first wicket was that of Kennedy Otieno, who was felled by a lifting delivery that smashed into his unprotected left arm before it cannoned into his stumps.

Earlier in the tournament, Lee also sent Sri Lanka captain Sanath Jayasuriya to hospital after a delivery hit the batsman's forearm.

But Lee claimed he had not set out to hurt either man.

"I don't like to see people getting hurt, and I am not a malicious person," he said.

"When you're bowling at my kind of pace, there is always a danger that someone is going to get hurt.

"But I don't think any fast bowler sets out to hurt anyone."