Ponting asks batsmen to lift

Ricky Ponting has called for greater consistency from his batsmen ahead of Thursday's crucial encounter against South Africa in Cape Town. The hosts levelled the series 1-1 in Centurion on Sunday when the visiting top order collapsed, but Ponting has rejected the need for a player revamp.

"We don't need wholesale changes," Ponting told AAP. "We need to get those guys to play a little bit better. I'm in exactly the same boat. It's a while since I've made a hundred in one-day cricket so I've got to really knuckle down and get stuck in as well and make a big score."

Ponting fell for 8 in Sunday's seven-wicket loss as Australia were dismissed for 131 in the 41st over. "Batting in the top order in one-day cricket is all about making big scores and taking the responsibility upon yourself to do that," he said.

"Michael Clarke's had success there, Brad Haddin has been very good and I've been in the No. 3 position for a long time. We need to get a lot more consistency out of us for the remainder of this series."

He expected some changes for the series against Pakistan that follows the current contest. "Shaun Marsh and probably Andrew Symonds are going to come back in and those sorts of guys," he said.

"But we've got the squad we've got here now. It's about us playing better than we did [on Sunday].'' The winner of the five-game series will take the No. 1 one-day ranking.