Mumbai, Oct 31: Australian captain Ricky Ponting today sought to put batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar on the backfoot saying playing in front of his home crowd in the cricket tri-series match tomorrow would put him under pressure. But India's captain Rahul Dravid was prompt to snub the suggestion by reminding his Australian counterpart that Tendulkar had scored plenty of runs at the Wankhede track.
"When I play in front of my home crowd back in Australia, I am under some sort of pressure and I suppose the same might be the case with Tendulkar, which might work out to our advantage," Ponting told reporters here on the eve of the match.
However, Dravid said, "I don't think Tendulkar will be under any kind of pressure playing here as he has got lot of runs in the past on the same wicket."
"A player of his class will not be bogged down by any kind of pressure as he has proved it repeatedly before," said the skipper.
Ponting was also upbeat about his team's chances following the big eight-wicket win against New Zealand in Faridabad on Wednesday.
"We know that beating India on their own backyard is difficult but if we continue to play the way we did against the Kiwis at Faridabad I think we can win the tournament," he said. Bureau Report