Ponting's blunders
Now the Ashes have been lost, it is tempting to begin scapegoating and blame it all on a single individual. And I will - I blame Ricky Ponting. He hardly instilled confidence as a captain throughout the series - here is a list of his 5 biggest blunders over the 5 tests:
5. Substitute whinging. If there was any doubt that England had become the new Australia and Australia was now the old England, Ricky Ponting put it beyond any doubt with his bitching about England's substitutes. I can understand a bit of a spray in the heat of the moment when run out by Gary Pratt (particularly with Duncan Fletcher smugly waving from the dressing room - even I'd want to punch him on the nose for that). But to go on with it in the media afterwards was pointless, futile and just a waste of thought and energy. In the old days, it was England who got injured, bagged by the media and complained about trivial gripes to distract from their poor performance. Now, it seems "Whinging Poms" has been replaced by "Whinging Aussies".
4. Getting run out. However, Duncan Fletcher summed up the whole Gary Pratt run-out perfectly when he questioned why Ponting ran for a single when the ball was hit directly to cover. All you had to do was say "no", Ricky.
3. Third Test hook shot. Noone disputes it was Ricky Ponting's last day century that saved the match for Australia. He batted magnificently for the whole day. However, with just a few overs to go and a handful of wickets in hand, he is out playing a hook shot. A-hook-shot. What can come of that? A single to fine leg? Or if you're lucky, a boundary in a situation were runs are meaningless. Keeping your wicket is the only thing that mattered. The only result of consequence that could come of it was a catch at fine leg or gloving it to the keeper. After a day of brilliant batting, he had a brain explosion with just a few minutes to go. He can be thankful Harmison bowled rubbish in the last over - if we'd lost that match, I never would've forgiven that ridiculous shot.
2. Even after the 2nd test loss, Australia still had the measure of Michael Vaughan - he'd been clean bowled 3 times out of 4. So in the 3rd test, when Vaughan comes into bat with Brett Lee steaming in after just taking a wicket, I was licking my lips to see Lee whistle one between the gate. But what does Ponting do? He immediately takes Lee off and brings the trundler Gillespie on. All I can imagine was Ponting thought this was a great chance for Gillespie to get back into form by bowling at the bunny Vaughan. Instead, Vaughan gets 150 and takes the match away from Australia.
2nd test - toss of coin
1. 2nd Test Toin Coss. There's a general consensus that the series turned when Ponting sent England in during the second test. At that moment in time, England were on the ropes - written off after the first Test thrashing. McGrath had just injured his ankle less than an hour earlier and was out of the game. Ponting decided to neutralise his major weapon, history's greatest ever leg spinner, by sending England in on a featherbed pitch. In a series where every match went down to the wire and the tiniest incident could turn a match, this was a huge turning point for the entire series.
| Posted by JC on Thu 15 Sep |  22 comments |
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