Monday Milestone: Punter
This Week in History:
1995, December 10
Ricky Ponting makes his first Test cricket appearance and makes 96 on debut.
“I’ve got mixed emotions about my knock at the moment. 96 is a good score but it would have been nice to get 100”
– Ricky Ponting that day in 1995
Have you ever considered Ricky was lucky to get that many?
Reading the column inches written about Ricky Ponting’s career in the wake of his recent retirement (including here on Making the Nut), the Milestone returns this week with a postulation.
There is no doubting Ponting’s contribution to Australian cricket. Indeed comments suggesting ‘best bat since Bradman’ aren’t entirely without hyperbole.
But delving beneath the surface, and looking back where it all began, the Milestone looks through sliding doors, and realises how it could all have played out so very differently….
The Delorean parks outside the WACA in 1995, and the roar of the crowd tells us that a wicket has just fallen, Michael Slater out for 219. It’s already been a monumental day but now all eyes turn to the new kid striding out to the crease with an immediate sense of purpose.
Ricky Ponting is a couple of weeks shy of his twentieth birthday on debut, fresh faced and goateed – taking the injured Steve Waugh ‘s place and determined to give himself the best possible chance to entrench his position. He would go on to make 96.
The story of his dismissal is well documented. With Ponting eyeing the rare honour to join the esteemed company of Doug Walters, Greg Chappell and Mark Waugh as Australian batsmen to score a century on debut, Chaminda Vaas steams in, producing a delivery that pitches and lifts, striking Ponting above the knee roll.
On the traditional bounce of the WACA wicket in Perth, the delivery should have been heading over the top, which renders the decision of umpire Khizer Hayat, who considers the delivery for a moment and adjudges Ponting LBW, astonishing.
That’s all well known. But the curious fact is that Ponting was ultimately lucky to get that far. Ponting’s very first delivery in Test cricket came from from Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan. Ricky, being somewhat understandably nervous, prodded at the spinning delivery. The ball collected the edge…
Then relief. The ball flew past first slip and rolled away into the gutter of the boundary. But what if the ball had gone to hand? A golden duck on debut was not part of the plan…
Would he have played 168 Tests? Unlikely. Would he have have amassed 13,378 runs? It’s doubtful. We have no crystal ball, so no one will ever know, but bear in mind Stuart Law was a fellow debutant with more experience in that Test, and concocted an unbeaten 54 on the flat wicket. Yet Law never played Test cricket again. Seems it wasn’t enough.
Cricket’s a funny game. Hard work can only take you so far. And the rest comes down to luck. Make no mistake, Ricky Ponting was a class act. No Australian has ever scored more Test runs. He has set records unlikely to be matched for years.
But in the throes of retirement now, whilst celebrating a remarkable career, perhaps it’s worth remembering, that on that day at the WACA, it could all have been very different.
Milestone Five: Significant Test innings of Ricky Ponting
1. v India 2003 – 257 at the MCG
Ponting’s greatest innings came during the Boxing Day Test. What made it more remarkable was it was his second double hundred in as many tests.
2. v South Africa 2006 – 120 & 143 at the SCG
Technically two innings here, as Ponting scores a hundred in each innings of his 100th test . Probably something we are unlikely to see for a long time.
3. v England 2005 – 156 at Old Trafford
Ponting dug in on the final day against England to save the Test match. His dismissal late in the day, meant the tailenders were required to survive only 24 balls to save the test.
4. v Sri Lanka 1995 -96 at the WACA
Denied a century in the cruellest of fashion on debut. Australia knew then that they had something special
5. v India 2012 – 143 at the SCG
With the axe above his head, Ponting dug in for 143 to score his first century since 2009. It prolonged his Test career for another year.
With thanks to Paul Kane/Getty Images AsiaPac for the picture
