India's batsmen have to fail sometime, don't they?

That's Ricky Ponting's hope ahead of Thursday's one-day international tri series match between Australia and India at the SCG.

With Australia and India already assured of meeting in next month's finals series, the remaining preliminary matches are a chance to hone plans and gain psychological edges.

So far this summer, Ponting acknowledged India had the upper hand after drawing the Test series and then winning a crunch one-dayer in Brisbane on Sunday.

"It's been a very good, even contest between the two teams right through the summer in both Test and one-day cricket and we'd like to get our noses back in front before the finals," Ponting said before a match which will be played under the shadow of David Hookes' death.

Ponting admitted his team had struggled to keep a lid on India's talented batting line-up but figured the law of averages meant India was due to fail sooner rather than later.

"The stand-out thing so far is how well they've batted, their batters haven't given us a chance, really.

"We probably haven't bowled as well as we can and our execution of some of our plans to some of their players haven't been as good as they can be.

"But I don't think it's going to be too far away before you see us take a few early wickets and put them under pressure. So far, right through the summer, that hasn't happened but it's bound to happen very soon."

Ponting said Australia had adjusted some of its plans for India's batsmen but admitted the main problem had been failing to execute plans consistently.

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