Winning Ashes 5-0 absolutely possible: Ponting

Australian skipper Ricky Ponting said Monday it was "absolutely possible" that his team could regain the Ashes with a 5-0 sweep against England later this year.
Ponting, who lost the Ashes for a second time as captain in the 2-1 series defeat in England last year, said the Australians had learnt from their mistakes and were a better side than the last Ashes contest.
Australia have slipped to fourth, narrowly ahead of England, in the Test rankings after their 1-1 drawn Test series against sixth-ranked Pakistan in England last month.
But Ponting, who met Cricket Australia officials in Melbourne on Monday to map out preparations for the November-January Ashes series, is undaunted.
"It's absolutely possible. There's no reason why not," Ponting told reporters at the Melbourne Cricket Ground when asked about a 5-0 Ashes sweep.
"It's all in our hands. It's how well we play and how well we take charge of different situations.
"We've learnt from a lot of the mistakes that we've made.
"There's no doubt we made some mistakes in the last Ashes series in England that probably at the end of the day cost us the series.
"We know now that we're a more experienced and probably a better team now than we were then.
"We put that together plus we're playing in our conditions, we hope to win this series and win it well.
"I've got confidence in the squad of players that we've got that they are going to be good enough to win an Ashes series."
Ponting said England's form in winning the opening two of four Tests this month against Pakistan was impressive but added the tourists would offer few surprises this summer.
"(James) Anderson and (Stuart) Broad and those guys have really stepped up," Ponting said.
"They are coming together well as a team. We have to make sure at the end of the Indian tour (in October) that we have got everything in place to make sure that we're ultra-competitive against them.
They (England) certainly have bowled well and they've had great conditions to bowl in as well, the English.
"We'll have a different set of conditions and a different ball when they come out here and I'm sure our guys will equip themselves really well.
"We know where we have to bowl to all of their batsmen. They've got no one there who's going to surprise us at all."
The opening Ashes Test begins at Brisbane's Gabba ground on November 25.

Gayle storm blows away Australia

Leading from the front, the West Indies captain Chris Gayle did what he is best known for – taking away the match on his own – in the ICC World Twenty20 match against Australia at the Oval here on Saturday. The West Indies overhauled the target of 169 runs with seven wickets in hand in just 15.5 overs.
Gayle smashed 88 off 50 balls against Australia and along with Andre Fletcher shared the third highest partnership in the T20 internationals. The West Indies skipper hit six sixes and as many fours in his knock which dismantled the Australian bowlers both mentally and physically.
Before the tournament, the West Indies had been ridiculed for their captain's comments about the primacy of Twenty20 so there was a sense of anticipation over how they would fare in their preferred format but the West Indies skipper matched his words with his actions.
Earlier, Australia had to work hard for the runs as they posted 169 runs thanks largely to a good knock by David Warner. The West Indies bowlers gave the team a great start by pushing Australia on the backfoot from the word go. The pitch was a flat but Jerome Taylor and Fidel Edwards relished the challenge.
Taylor claimed two wickets in his opening over and if there had not conceded wides, Australia would have been 0 for 2. While the other batsmen were copping fiery treatment from the bowlers, Warner experienced the fielders' generosity. He played with a mix of aggression and caution. Along with Brad Haddin, he handled the repair work with a 66-run stand.
Warner scored 63 runs off 53 balls to keep Australia in the game. The Hussey brothers – David and Mike – also played their role scoring 27 and 28 runs respectively. But the Australian bowlers’ inability to stop Gayle will leave the team with the challenge of having to beat Sri Lanka in their next game in the group of death.