New Delhi, Oct. 30: Beleaguered Australia, grappling with injuries to key players, were eyeing a good hit in the nets on Friday, the eve of their third ODI against India at the Ferozeshah Kotla here. What they got was an over-watered surface for their practice session which ticked off Ricky Ponting.

"I am very disappointed. It seems that everybody in the world except the groundsmen here knew that we were training at 9 am. To turn up and find that the wickets are completely unusable is very disappointing," said the Australia captain, lashing out at the DDCA on Friday.

"You just have one training day and I am sure that by the time the Indians come this afternoon the wicket will be fine. It was a bit of a disadvantage for us," he added.

The Indians meanwhile, had a lengthy hit in the nets. Almost all the training pitches had substantial bounce and a healthy amount of grass cover on them.

Even Sachin Tendulkar took some time to get his eye in on the surface with Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel and Praveen Kumar regularly beating his bat outside off stump.

Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni however, was not too perturbed about the practice facilities. "One day of practice doesn’t make a difference. If you see these wickets they are quite different from the one out in the centre," Dhoni said after the net session. The Kotla pitch is expected to be slow and low compared to those at Baroda and Nagpur. The Aussies were hoping to get a feel of the things ahead of the crucial tie with the series locked at 1-1.

"I think it will be low and slow as we saw through the Champions League. It will be pretty hard for the batsmen to score. I would imagine batting first will be the way to go," the Aussie skipper said about the pitch.

"We will have a look at the make-up of our team. With Jon Holland and Nathan Hauritz in the side it gives us an opportunity to play two spinners. We will have to think what is the best balance for us on that surface," he added.

Meanwhile, Ponting’s opposite number Dhoni claimed that a good start would be important on this surface.

"If you get off to a good start in the first few overs then you can really set targets like 10 overs at a time.

"So if the character of the wicket changes, you can accordingly change and see what is a good score on this surface. It is the type of pitch where 220 or 200-odd can be a good score," the Indian skipper said.