I'm still out to bowl fast, says Lee

Australia's fast bowling spearhead Brett Lee feels he is now bowling better than ever before.

Lee might have got the least reward in terms of wickets in this World Cup, but he was leading the attack in a wiser and more flexible way. He has three wickets in three matches, compared to eight for Mitchell Johnson and six for Shaun Tait, but has shouldered the burden of bowling in Powerplays, where batsmen have found it tough getting runs off him.

But Lee is not happy with bowling variety and keeping the scoring rate down. He wants to bowl fast.

"I'm still out to bowl fast. I said about six months ago that if I couldn't hit that 150 km per hour mark I wouldn't want to be playing cricket," he said.

Lee said praise by captain Ricky Ponting that he was bowling smarter than ever before has boosted his confidence.

"When you first come on the scene - when you're in your early 20s playing for Australia - you're pretty much thrown in the deep end. You don't know what you expect. But over time - and that's the whole thing about experience - you get to realise how things work and how you work as a player," he said.

"I probably know my bowling better now than I ever have."

Lee said the defending champions are steadily improving.

"We are very comfortable and happy with the way things are going. It doesn't mean we're guaranteed anything. It's probably good that we're the underdogs, not the favourites, and we can thrive on that. With the way that we've played, momentum has actually swung our way," he said.