Ricky Ponting

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Ricky Ponting  was born 19 December 1974, nicknamed Punter, is the current captain of the Australian cricket team. He is a specialist right-handed batsman, slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very occasional bowler. He is regarded as one of Australia's finest cricketers in the modern era. He represents the Tasmanian Tigers in Australian domestic cricket and played in the Indian Premier League with the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2008.

Ricky Ponting  made his first-class debut for Tasmania in November 1992, when just 17 years and 337 days old, becoming the youngest Tasmanian to play in a Sheffield Shield match. However, he had to wait until 1995 before making his One Day International (ODI) debut, during a quadrangular tournament in New Zealand in a match against South Africa. His Test debut followed shortly after, when selected for the first Test of the 1995 home series against Sri Lanka in Perth, in which he scored 96. He lost his place in the national team several times in the period before early-1999, due to lack of form and discipline, before becoming One Day International captain in early-2002 and Test captain in early-2004.

After being involved in 151 Tests and 352 ODIs, Ricky Ponting  is Australia's leading run-scorer in Test and ODI cricket, with more than 25,000 international runs as of July 2010. He has scored 39 Test centuries—behind only Indian Sachin Tendulkar (50) and third for most runs in ODIs behind Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya.

 In 2008, Ponting led the Australians back to India, and Ponting had not led an Australian team to victory there, as he missed the first three Tests of the 2004 tour due to injury. Adam Gilchrist led the Australians to a 2–1 victory, however Australia lost the fourth and final Test in Mumbai when Ponting returned. It was Australia's first Test series win in India since 1969–70, in which he made 11 and 12, on a controversial pitch.

Ponting was also under pressure following the spiteful confrontations during the Indian tour of Australia earlier in the year, and only scored 17 runs at 3.40 in 2001. Ponting acknowledged that he was keen to rectify his poor Test batting record in India. Australia's attack was also to come under the microscope; in a traditionally spin-dominated country, they only had the uncapped Bryce McGain, Jason Krejza, and White, who was no longer a regular bowler in domestic cricket. Australia's tactics were questioned from the outset. McGain was sent home injured and Krejza was heavily attacked by India's younger batsmen in a tour match, conceding 0/199 in 31 overs. Krejza was then omitted from the first three Tests, even though Ponting publicly claimed his confidence in his bowler. White played at No. 8, a specialist bowler's position, even though he played mostly as a batsman in first-class cricket. Although Ponting frequently extolled White in public, he often opted to use the part-time left arm orthodox spin of Michael Clarke more often and before White.

In the First Test on a turning pitch in Bangalore, Ponting brought up his first Test century in India, 123 on the first day, although he eventually fell leg before wicket to Harbhajan. After the innings Ponting said, "Today is one step in the right direction. It was nice to get some runs out there and put the team in a good position. But one innings doesn't make a tour." The other tours I've had here, apart from the last Test I played, I've batted at six, always coming in against spin and when the wicket has worn. One thing that stands out in my career is whenever I've been in early, with the team in a bit of trouble, I've managed to make runs." Australia had the hosts seven wickets down in their first innings, still more than 320 runs in arrears, but India recovered to salvage a draw after a rearguard effort.

In the Second Test in Mohali. Australia were defeated by 320 runs and Ponting was criticised for using part-timers against the free-scoring Indian batsmen in the second innings, because of a slow over-rate, which is penalisable by a fine, or in severe instances, a ban to the captain. This meant that he was not able to use pace spearhead Brett Lee significantly. A long discussion between Lee and Ponting prompted media allegations of a team rift.

The Third Test in Delhi saw a flat pitch, where India scored 7/613 in its first innings. Gautam Gambhir and VVS Laxman both scored double centuries, and Ponting resorted to bowling himself for two overs. Ponting amassed 87 in Australia's first innings score of 577. The match ended in a draw and Australia needed to win in the Fourth Test in Nagpur to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

With Australia needing to win the Fourth Test, Krejza was called in and took 12 wickets on debut. On the fourth afternoon of the Fourth Test, the Indian batting collapsed, and Australia had an opportunity to bowl them out and chase a target of around 250–300 after the tea break. However, the Australians were a long way behind on their over rate, so in order to avoid a one match suspension, Ponting chose to bowl their part-time spinners and medium pacers such as Michael Clarke, Cameron White and Mike Hussey (who were all unsuccessful in capturing a wicket), as they took less time. In the meantime, captain MS Dhoni and Harbhajan both added half centuries. This drew strong criticism from many commentators, who suggested that their Faster bowlers, who had been responsible for the collapse, could have bowled from a shorter run-up. When the fast bowlers were reintroduced, the last four wickets fell quickly. This left Australia with 382 runs for victory and they lost by 172 runs to cede the series 2–0. In the first innings, Ponting became Harbhajan's 300th Test wicket. He ended the series with 264 runs at 37.71. While below his career standards, it was substantially better than his previous Test efforts in India.

Ponting escaped from India with a fine for slow over rates. He failed to redress the matter during the subsequent home series against New Zealand, when match referee Chris Broad dealt a second successive fine for being three overs behind in the First Test: Ponting was stripped of thirty per cent of his A$12,750 match fee, twice the punishment of his team-mates in accordance with International Cricket Council rules for captains. Australia were largely untroubled by New Zealand, sweeping both Tests. Ponting scored only 100 runs at 33.33.

In the first Test in Perth, starting in December, Ponting again had to reduce his reliance on his preferred pace bowlers, and rely more on spinners due to a slow over rate. His persistent problems with the over rate have prompted some commentators to criticise him for spending too much time during the match conferring with bowlers. In the first innings he scored a duck, and managed 32 in Australia's second innings. Ponting's inexperienced attack had trouble penetrating the opposition batsmen, and South Africa made 4/414, the second highest successful runchase in history to win by six wickets on the final day.

Ponting experienced a form slump for much of 2008, albeit in comparison to his usually high standards. However he again exceeded 1,000 runs in the calendar year. Ponting scored his 37th century in the first innings of the Second Test against South Africa on Boxing Day, and followed that with 99 in the second innings, seemingly a lone stand against the South African bowling attack. The tourists won the match by nine wickets to win the series. Australia thus lost their first home Test series since 1992–93. "We've had an amazing run as a team," Ponting said after the match. "We have dominated world cricket for a long period of time. I'm still very positive and very sure that with some of these younger guys coming on that in a few years' time we can get back up there and be dominating world cricket once again. It's disappointing when you lose any series. This one I think is probably no different. The only fact that's different is that we've probably been in very strong winning positions in both of the Test matches and when we've needed to put the last couple of nails in the coffin we haven't been able to do that. The gap between our best cricket and our worst cricket has been too big. We have to make that smaller if we want to win the next Test and if we want to stay in the top group of Test-playing nations." Australia lost the series 2–1, the first time South Africa had won a Test series against Australian since 1970, and the first on Australian soil. Ponting totalled 285 runs at 47.50 for the series.

With the retirement of experienced opening batsman Matthew Hayden—who was replaced by the uncapped 20 year-old Phillip Hughes—the Australian team that toured South Africa in February, March and April 2009 was its most inexperienced since since the defections to World Series Cricket. This was further compounded by the loss of Andrew Symonds to injury, who was replaced by the uncapped Marcus North. The bowling attack also required major changes, due to the injuries to Brett Lee and Stuart Clark. Subsequently, paceman Mitchell Johnson was the only bowler with more than four Tests heading into the series. Of the First Test team, Hughes, North, Ben Hilfenhaus, Peter Siddle and Andrew McDonald had only five Tests between them, with the former three making their debut.^[210] Ponting's team took the series 2–1, so Australia maintained their No. 1 Test ranking. Ponting was praised for cobbling together an unexpected win, as South Africa were thought to be stronger on home soil. He scored eighties in the first two Tests, ending with 210 runs at 35.00.