Ponting punts Indian attack with century
October 9th 2008 22:28
India Vs Australia 1st Test highlights
Skipper Ricky Ponting ended his run drought on Indian soil with a superb century as Australia came back strongly after a shocking start in the first Test against India.
Ponting hit 123 to steer the tourists away from the first-over dismissal of Matthew Hayden to a more comfortable 254-4 by stumps on the opening day at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Ponting, who won the toss and elected to take first strike in good batting conditions, put on 166 for the second wicket with Simon Katich after Hayden was caught behind off the third ball of the match by Zaheer Khan.
Ponting set aside a disappointing average of 12.28 in eight previous Tests in India to compile his 36th career Test century, just three behind record holder Sachin Tendulkar's tally of 39.
"It was nice to get some runs today," said the skipper, whose 200th Test innings made him only the fourth Australian after Allan Border and the Waugh brothers, Steve and Mark, to achieve the feat.
"As I have said since I have been here, I have been working really hard and I have made no secret of it that my record here has been poor, and I want to rectify that.
"Today is one step in the right direction and it was nice get the team into a good position, but one innings does not make a tour. I have got a few more yet to play. At no stage today did I put any extra pressure on myself to play different shots or combat anything the bowlers were doing.
"It was all about watching the ball and playing it on its merits and trusting my defensive technique more than anything."
Ponting's 16th century as captain enabled him to stamp his authority at the start of his team's defence of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in the four-Test series.
The only time Ponting looked in trouble was when India appealed for a return catch as the batsman, then on 110, drove a half-volley back to bowler Anil Kumble, the Indian captain.
With no TV review system in place for the series, umpire Rudi Koertzen consulted his colleague Asad Rauf before turning down the appeal, indicating Ponting had played the ball down into the ground.
Despite the late dismissals, Ponting was still happy with the day's play, saying: "Yes I'm satisfied and it was a pretty good day for Australia.
"One for none after three balls and I was out nice and early. We managed to solve that really well through the end of the day. But the last two wickets in the last half hour was a little disappointing for us.
"But yes, I think we are in a pretty good position and 250 at the end of the day on that surface was a pretty good effort.
"We still have a bit of batting to come and hopefully the rest of the guys in the order can get some partnerships on the board and get us to a nice total."
Ponting dismissed suggestions that his team did not make full use of the opportunity to score more runs on a flat batting track.
"I don't think we were that defensive today," he said.
"The Indians had a few guys out on the fence pretty early in the day, so a lot of boundary-scoring options were taken away from us. It wasn't a pretty good wicket to score on, there was not much bounce and there wasn't much pace either.
"The ball got soft quite early on today. I understand they have some problems with the cricket ball over here over the last 12 months. The ball has been going soft as it happened in our tour game as well.
"It wasn't perfect batting conditions so at the end of the day I'm fairly happy with the situation we are in."
Indian seamer Ishant Sharma applauded Ponting's knock, saying "all good batsmen go through a rough patch, but they come out of it because they are so good.
"But the fourth wicket in the last over has evened up things a bit. It was a very good effort on our part to concede just 254 runs in the entire day on a good batting wicket."
Skipper Ricky Ponting ended his run drought on Indian soil with a superb century as Australia came back strongly after a shocking start in the first Test against India.
Ponting hit 123 to steer the tourists away from the first-over dismissal of Matthew Hayden to a more comfortable 254-4 by stumps on the opening day at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Ponting, who won the toss and elected to take first strike in good batting conditions, put on 166 for the second wicket with Simon Katich after Hayden was caught behind off the third ball of the match by Zaheer Khan.
Ponting set aside a disappointing average of 12.28 in eight previous Tests in India to compile his 36th career Test century, just three behind record holder Sachin Tendulkar's tally of 39.
"It was nice to get some runs today," said the skipper, whose 200th Test innings made him only the fourth Australian after Allan Border and the Waugh brothers, Steve and Mark, to achieve the feat.
"As I have said since I have been here, I have been working really hard and I have made no secret of it that my record here has been poor, and I want to rectify that.
"Today is one step in the right direction and it was nice get the team into a good position, but one innings does not make a tour. I have got a few more yet to play. At no stage today did I put any extra pressure on myself to play different shots or combat anything the bowlers were doing.
"It was all about watching the ball and playing it on its merits and trusting my defensive technique more than anything."
Ponting's 16th century as captain enabled him to stamp his authority at the start of his team's defence of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in the four-Test series.
The only time Ponting looked in trouble was when India appealed for a return catch as the batsman, then on 110, drove a half-volley back to bowler Anil Kumble, the Indian captain.
With no TV review system in place for the series, umpire Rudi Koertzen consulted his colleague Asad Rauf before turning down the appeal, indicating Ponting had played the ball down into the ground.
Despite the late dismissals, Ponting was still happy with the day's play, saying: "Yes I'm satisfied and it was a pretty good day for Australia.
"One for none after three balls and I was out nice and early. We managed to solve that really well through the end of the day. But the last two wickets in the last half hour was a little disappointing for us.
"But yes, I think we are in a pretty good position and 250 at the end of the day on that surface was a pretty good effort.
"We still have a bit of batting to come and hopefully the rest of the guys in the order can get some partnerships on the board and get us to a nice total."
Ponting dismissed suggestions that his team did not make full use of the opportunity to score more runs on a flat batting track.
"I don't think we were that defensive today," he said.
"The Indians had a few guys out on the fence pretty early in the day, so a lot of boundary-scoring options were taken away from us. It wasn't a pretty good wicket to score on, there was not much bounce and there wasn't much pace either.
"The ball got soft quite early on today. I understand they have some problems with the cricket ball over here over the last 12 months. The ball has been going soft as it happened in our tour game as well.
"It wasn't perfect batting conditions so at the end of the day I'm fairly happy with the situation we are in."
Indian seamer Ishant Sharma applauded Ponting's knock, saying "all good batsmen go through a rough patch, but they come out of it because they are so good.
"But the fourth wicket in the last over has evened up things a bit. It was a very good effort on our part to concede just 254 runs in the entire day on a good batting wicket."
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