Ponting Reigns With Historic Knock

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday January 7, 2006

Trevor Marshallsea

The showers and storms stayed away from the SCG yesterday but the history rained down by the bucketload. Once Graeme Smith made a declaration that was both commendable and about the only option he had, once it was clear one eye did not need to be kept on the weather, it was difficult to know where to look.

Australia broke a 107-year-old record for the highest winning fourth-innings score at the SCG, showing how the pitch had held up fairly despite other expectations in dashing on 2-288 in 60.3 overs to win by eight wickets and take the series 2-0.

Smith, who set Australia 287 off 76 overs in declaring an hour before lunch, set something of a record by having declared twice and still lost. In the history of Test cricket, that has happened only once before in genuine circumstances, when Sir Garfield Sobers did so against England in Trinidad in 1967-68.

Smith would have been the first South African to suffer that fate, except for the late Hansie Cronje declaring twice in losing to England at Centurion in 2000. The circumstances of that rain-marred match were, however, less than genuine, with match-fixer Cronje declaring at 0-0 in the second innings and earning himself a booty including a leather jacket in the process.

Smith will still take some moral points back home for the return three-Test series in South Africa, his side having made the running in this match until yesterday, declaring at 9-451 and 6-194.

Mostly, though, the history belonged to Ricky Ponting, who in the first match of 2006 has emphatically pushed into the past his turmoil of 2005, in which he became the captain who lost the Ashes after the urn had sat in Australian hands for 16 years.

Having become the first Australian, and the sixth player ever, to make a century in his 100th Test through his 120 in the first innings, Ponting became the first to score two of them in his centenary Test as he led his side to victory with 143 off 159 balls. It is the second time he has made two hundreds in a Test.

With his 263 runs in this Test, Ponting has climbed into the top 10 runscorers in the game, passing six players including Sobers, David Gower and the man who was formerly Australia's third top scorer, Mark Waugh.

He is now one century off equaling Don Bradman's 29, four behind Steve Waugh's national record, and has become top of the list for runs-scored and centuries made in 124 years of Tests at the SCG, with 1181 and five respectively. The statisticians were agog, but Ponting had other matters on his mind. He was delighted with his partnership with Matthew Hayden, who made 90 before holing out to end a 182-run stand off 204 balls which set Australia up for victory. The pair took control after lunch, following a tentative start in which Australia was 1-30 for the loss of Justin Langer through the first 12 overs.

Mostly, Ponting was thrilled with a home Test summer featuring a 3-0 burying of the West Indies and this defeat of South Africa, which, after the Super Test win over the World XI, he felt was the perfect response to the Ashes loss from a vastly different side to the one that played in that series.

"We have played some good cricket. I still think there's room for improvement in a few areas of our team performance. We've still got a few guys in the side that are pretty new to Test cricket. Most of them have done the job when required. Things are heading in the right direction," said Ponting, who also praised Australia's new-look coaching staff.

Ponting still rated the drawn Manchester Test during last year's Ashes - in which he made 156 on the last day to save a draw - as his favourite Test. But he said this one, with his centuries and history spree, would rate highly once he had digested it.

"This one's got to be up there, no doubt about it, the longer I think about it," he said. "This has been a good ground for me. It's a great ground, up there with the best in the world. I have a soft spot for Melbourne but the crowds here the last few days have been great. It's turned out to be an almost perfect Test for the team.

"I feel really good about my game at the moment. Things are going well. My last few innings been really happy, with Melbourne [117] on that tough pitch and these last two knocks, it's been very enjoyable."

While Ponting did not feel Smith's declaration was particularly sporting yesterday - after most of day four had been lost - he praised the Proteas for their play.

"If South Africa wanted to give themselves a chance ... they had to declare when they did," he said. "They've really tested us throughout this series. It was a hard-fought, tough tussle every match we've played. In Perth they fought to the end; in Melbourne it was some brilliance from Michael Hussey which won it for us."

Ponting said disciplinary reprimands against Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath in this match were "not ideal", but said most such reports for his side often come at the end of a series and are a reflection of fatigue and frustration. But after a perfect start to 2006, he and his teammates were a happy bunch last night.

© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald

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