NAIROBI, Sept 8 AAP - Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie have been warned to bowl better in the final few overs of one-day cricket matches or someone else will be asked to do their job.

McGrath and Gillespie are Australia's premier pace bowlers in the one-day arena - especially in the first 10 to 15 overs where they can wreak havoc with the new ball.

But lately they've been a little loose in the final overs of an innings, captain Ricky Ponting said.

Saturday's rained-out triangular series final was a case in point.

Australia had Pakistan on the ropes at 6-158 after 44 overs when McGrath and Gillespie were called on to bowl three overs each.

Abdur Razzaq just tore them to strips, hitting 44 runs off 19 balls before being runout for 59 off 43 balls.

In total Pakistan scored 69 runs in the last six overs - 33 off McGrath, 35 off Gillespie and a leg bye - to reach 227 all out, Gillespie taking two wickets with his last two balls to finish with 5-70.

Ponting was unimpressed with the carnage, particularly as he'd used up his other bowlers' allotment of overs and had no choice but to stick with the pair.

"That's one area we're going to have to look at," Ponting said.

"We didn't have to do it (bowl at the death) at all through this tournament but we got put in a situation where we had to do it in the final and our bowlers weren't good enough.

"Gillespie and McGrath didn't get enough balls in the right area.

"We did the same in South Africa (earlier this year) as well."

Ponting said he would stick with the pair for now.

"They're the best two bowlers in our side at the moment and they're more likely to get the ball in the right spot than the other guys - we'll give them a few more goes and if it doesn't work we'll have to try something else."

Ponting said the pair should have been bowling yorkers but were either too full or too short.

"We have to get the balls right on the crease line but we just weren't good enough to bowl yorkers - especially against Razzaq who likes to hit down the ground."

Despite the final flood, McGrath finished the tournament with nine wickets at an average of 8.78 and conceded just 2.51 runs per over.

Gillespie was the leading wicket taker with 15 at 11.00 but went for 4.34 runs per over to be the most expensive of the Australian bowlers.

© 2002 AAP

This report does not necessarily represent the views of the Australian Cricket Board.