Australia’s Brad Haddin, who will replace Adam Gilchrist, at the nets in Adelaide on Sunday. (AFP)

Adelaide: Buoyed by their lion-hearted show against India, Zimbabwe are keen to put up a good show against Australia as well, in Monday’s tri-series match.

Zimbabwe, without a win in five outings, are already out of contention for a berth in the best-of-three finals but they will play for pride and to prove that they are no pushovers.

Australia with 23 points from five matches and India with as many from one match more are poised to face off in the finals, the first of which will be held in Melbourne on February 6. Zimbabwe have just two points.

But they showed their potential in ample measure on Saturday as they came close to stage an upset win against India before faltering in the final over to suffer a three-run defeat.

Zimbabwe started the series miserably but have improved gradually and captain Heath Streak will look up to his boys to register the elusive win. Streak said he wanted his boys to “feel the hurt” of losing a close game and press for victory in the remaining three league matches.

“In a way, you want your guys to feel hurt and try and win more matches. We need just that one per cent extra to be a better team. We must learn to cross the line,” said Streak.

Australia were in a similar position against India on Thursday in Sydney but survived the pressure to win with hen Brett Lee hitting a sixer. The world champions would not like the game to stretch to the wire again.

They have already announced that they will rest explosive opener Adam Gilchrist and field Brad Haddin. The other opener Matthew Hayden has had his rest already and will return to the squad.

Zimbabwe will take heart from the form of middle-order batsmen Stuart Carlisle and Sean Ervine both of whom hit centuries against India but their top order remains a big worry.

“It feels good that the No. 4 and 5 batsmen were able to get centuries but we are still not getting the start we want. We lost early wickets and were always playing the catch-up thereafter,” admitted Streak.

For Ricky Ponting the worry will be the middle-order as they lost a couple of quick wickets cheaply and also failed to build up substantial partnerships thereby allowing things to drift away against India.

But Ponting promised an improved performance, saying: “The cricket we have played all summer has been outstanding. It can’t get tougher but we will have to lift our game. If we start getting those partnerships, we will be even harder to beat.”

Zimbabwe’s bowling was not outstanding against India as they allowed them to pile up 280 despite reducing them to four for three at one stage. But they did well in restricting them to a score inside the 300 mark and were good in the field.

For Australia Lee is yet to regain his top form but his match-winning six did redeem him to some extent and with Ponting’s unflinching faith in the fast bowler, he is all set to take the field on Monday before a huge holiday crowd on the Australia Day.

Teams (from):

Zimbabwe: Heath Streak (captain), Vusi Sibanda, Grant Flower, Stuart Carlisle, Tatenda Taibu, Andy Blignaut, Sean Ervine, Raymond Price, Douglas Hondo, Travis Friend, Dion Ebrahim, Stuart Matsikenyeri.

Australia: Ricky Ponting (captain), Brad Haddin, Damien Martyn, Matthew Hayden, Michael Bevan, Andrew Symonds, Michael Clarke, Andy Bichel, Brett Lee, Brad Hogg, Brad Williams, Jason Gillespie.