Ricky Ponting’s 156-run innings that led Australia’s ”great escape” in the third Ashes Test against England marked the Tasmanian batsman’s true graduation as Test captain, according to Steve Waugh, cricket’s most successful leader to date.
”Ricky Ponting led from the front in the final day of the Test as all influential leaders should,” Waugh wrote in a column for Wednesday’s Daily Telegraph about Monday’s dramatic draw at Old Trafford.
”In doing so, he gave his teammates a lesson in concentration and application that should jolt the team into action — because if they don’t improve, then our hold on the Ashes is perilous,” said Waugh.
”In time, Ricky will look back and see this as his graduation as a Test captain.”
Waugh, Ponting’s predecessor and mentor, was legendary for his cool under pressure — a quality that helped make him the most successful captain in Test cricket history, with 41 victories from 57 Tests.
Waugh said Ponting, in his first Ashes series as captain, showed the same composure when he walked out to bat on Monday with Australia needing more than 400 runs or a draw to avoid going down 2-1 in the five-Test series in which his team’s form had been scratchy at best.
”But as a leader you have to be able to compartmentalise to survive — and he did that with a single-mindedness and purpose that will now be a benchmark for him to measure himself by in the future,” said Waugh.
Ponting defied a blistering England pace attack for seven hours, facing 275 balls on his way to a remarkable 156 and man-of-the-match honours.
Waugh was joined in his praise of Ponting by a host of Australian commentators, who previously had been questioning his performance as both batsman and team leader.
”Seldom has a captain defied the times as magnificently as did Ricky Ponting in his country’s hour of greatest need,” wrote Peter Roebuck in a commentary.
”After languishing for four days, [Ponting] redeemed himself with a performance so defiant and skilful that it deserves a place alongside the finest of its type,” Roebuck said.
”Heavens, it might have been Steve Waugh out there, or Allan Border.” — Sapa-AFP