Centurion, Oct. 4: Daniel Vettori is relishing a chance to lock horns with Australia. Up against their biggest rivals in the final of the 2009 Champions Trophy at the SuperSport Park here on Monday, the scholarly-looking Kiwi captain said they were keen to reverse the recent trend of results.

"We’ve been poor of late against them," he said ahead of nets here on Sunday. "We got a 2-2 result in the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy but before that we haven’t played as well as we can.

"Probably we’ve had a reputation for getting up against them but the results haven’t been there. We’re hoping we can all on that form from our first two games from that series but we know Australia are a pretty impressive side."

Vettori was pleased with the outcome of Saturday’s semi-final against Pakistan at the Wanderers but felt a longer break ahead of the final would have been ideal. "I wish we had another day. It was exhausting to get through that late game but once tomorrow comes, the adrenalin will take over and everyone will be pretty excited about playing in the final.

"Most teams prefer two days between games. For a final it is irrelevant because most teams get themselves up"

Asked whether there would be changes in his side considering the Black Caps had lost the only game they played here — against South Africa — Vettori said, "We’ll have the same 12 as yesterday, with a question over whether we include Jeetan Patel or not."

He dismissed talk that the Kiwis were and had been the underdogs here. "I think it’s irrelevant. We have to put emphasis on our performance and cannot worry about too much about other things. I think the top eight teams that are here believe all that they can win on the day and we’re no different."

So how were they looking at the next game? "When you achieve what you set out to achieve you realise there is immense desire to go all the way," he said.

There’s no relief in the camp. It is all about how we are gonna win tomorrow as opposed to ‘its great we made it’."