Aussies in the box seat

Australia opens its ICC Champions Trophy defence against the West Indies on Saturday in Johannesburg and should have no problems starting with a win.

While Ricky Ponting won't have regular keeper Brad Haddin (finger) or star bowler Nathan Bracken (knee) at his disposal for the entire tournament, the Australian captain is in a much better position than his Calypso counterpart Floyd Reifer.

With the West Indies' frontline stars still unavailable as a result of a pay dispute with their board, Reifer leads a team minus the likes of Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Fidel Edwards.

The most recent outings for the two teams were both losses, with Reifer's side crashing to a five-wicket defeat against Pakistan earlier this week while Australia's batting collapse in the final game of its series last weekend against England denied it an unprecedented 7-0 whitewash.

Things could have been much uglier for the West Indies after the scoreboard read 7-47 at one point before a slight recovery to be all out for 133, while the Aussies put up a fight defending only 176 before succumbing by four wickets.

Encouragingly for Australia though Ponting, Callum Ferguson, Cameron White and Tim Paine all scored hundreds in the series thrashing of England while the bowlers shared the wickets around with Brett Lee, Mitch Johnson and Shane Watson doing heavy damage at various stages.

The toss could have a large bearing on how long this match lasts with the likelihood of it being over much quicker if the West Indies bat first as the Australians will look for a quick kill and to dominate their less experienced rivals.

But if Australia does bat first it may give the likes of Michael Clarke, Watson and Mike Hussey the chance for some more time in the middle as it looks to quickly return to winning ways in the short tournament.

With preliminary matches to come against India and Pakistan ahead of a possible semi-final berth, expect Ponting and his men to get away to a strong win in an attempt to set the tone for what they hope will be a successful title defence.