Australia vs Sri Lanka ICC T20 Live Streaming

"He'll just get better and better the more overs he gets under his belt. The more he bowls to better players as well he'll benefit from that a lot. He gives us great flexibility."

Another positive for Ponting was the mature 63 from opener David Warner, who in his short career has cultivated a boom or bust reputation.

Warner was forced to rein in his explosive strokeplay after the loss of early wickets.

Making the most of the opportunity

Ponting said Warner would most likely not have played had Andrew Symonds not been sent home.

"We were looking at doing some slightly different things with our team in this game if Symmo had have been in the middle order there," he said.

"But he wasn't so it was good for David that chance at the top of the order to score and I think he showed everybody just how good he can be in this form of the game.