Statistical Focus : Ricky Ponting
Friday, September 3 2004
Vital Stats:
Country of Origin: Australia
Cricketing Country/Team: Australia
Batting: Right-handed; Attacking
Bowling: Right-arm medium; Defensive
Ricky Ponting is undoubtedly one of the premier batsmen in the world at the moment and well on his way to being regarded as an all-time great of the game when he hangs up his boots from dispatching the world's bowlers with disdain. Ponting's rise has been dramatic as he has climbed from a batsman frequenting the number 6 and 7 spots in the order to one of the finest top order batsmen Australia has produced and the captain to add to the honours.
Not the most imposing of physiques, Ponting oozes class during his batting. His strokeplay is majestic whilst devastatingly powerful and he has undoubtedly stirred awe in even the most proud of opposition bowlers. Statistics that read 6086 Test runs (54.33 average), 20 Test hundreds, 7255 ODI runs (42.42 average) and 15 ODI hundreds is validation of such a claim.
Ponting's international career started in the limited overs form of the game at the tender age of 20, with a score of just 1 against South Africa in New Zealand. It was less than a glimmer of the player he would in time become. Indeed, the first glimmer would take two more innings, when he knocked for 62 from 92 balls against India in the same Centenary Tournament. His first international half-century. Two more half-centuries were added and then the big moment of Ponting's first ODI and international hundred - 123 against Sri Lanka during the Benson & Hedges World Series.
By the time Ponting was drafted into the Test team, his ODI career read 464 runs in 16 innings at a notch of 33.14. Now he was primed for his debut and didn't let many down with it, rattling 8 fours in his first Test innings of 96 (batting at 5) against Sri Lanka. An innings victory for Australia meant he would end his debut with his only failure being the 4 runs short. In the second Test he picked up right where he left off and ended on 71. Once more he was not called upon to bat twice and when he finally did, in the 3rd Test in Adelaide, he made a modest 6 and 20.
Ricky Ponting would not score his maiden Test hundred until facing Australia's most enjoyed of opponents - England. Having scored only 163 runs in his last 8 innings of the series (88 coming in his 1st), Ponting was dropped, but was recalled to 127 against England at Leeds. The innings contained 16 fours and 1 six and lasted 202 balls.
Ponting started his career solidly but never really branched into truly world-class at Test level until his 31st Test cap. In that game, against Pakistan, Ponting stood up to the likes of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Saqlain Mushtaq and scored a blinding 197. It was his 5th Test hundred and at the time his highest Test score by 70 runs. Indeed, it remained his highest Test innings until his 206 against the West Indies in his 66th Test match. The buildup to the innings gave a true sense of shock when it was played, as Ponting had not made a run in the series previously - 3 consecutive ducks.
That innings of 197 took Ponting's Test average from 38.62 into the 40s at 42.22 and he never again fell under 40. In fact, in his following innings, Ponting raised his level further, to 44.02 with 125 against India at Adelaide. Just 4 innings after, it was 141 not out at Sydney to cap a stretch where he had scored 572 runs in 9 innings over two series for an average of 81.71.
Since that 197 Ponting has amassed 4219 runs at 62.04 per innings, garnished with 15 hundreds and 12 fifties. Over the period he's registered only 4 ducks, 3 of them in one series. That low series was played in India, a place where Ponting's career average of 12.41 suggests he has not yet conquered. In this particular series, Ponting managed 17 runs in his 5 innings and got off the mark but twice, getting only as far as 6 and 11 - it is statistically the lowest point of his career. A fairly successful Ashes series followed and Ponting embarked on his dominant stomp once more, against New Zealand. Leading on from the disappointment of India 2000/01 Ponting went up a notch for even more impressive stats of 3594 runs at 66.55 until his 79th cap, versus Sri Lanka this year.
Ironically, the peak of Ponting's Test career also featured India. In the 2003/04 rematch in Australia, Ponting tripled his double hundred count (from 1 to 3) and scored a total of 706 runs in 8 innings (100.85 average). His 1215 runs in 2003 was the highest for the calender year and scores of 257 and 242 were recorded as his top two scores.
Meanwhile, in the world of fielding restrictions, Ponting also experienced a climb in form. For most of Ponting's career, his One Day International average flickered above and below the 40 mark after any given innings and it took 73 against the West Indies for it to settle above the 40 mark. Up until that significant effort, Ponting had scored 6 hundreds and 20 fifties in 105 games. Since, the numbers read 9 hundreds and 21 fifties in 96 games.
In ODIs Ricky Ponting has never really bathed himself in the glory which he has in Tests, but he remains a leading player in the field and has played some brilliant innings in his stead. The classic example is his 140 unbeaten, scored off only 121 balls against India in the 2003 World Cup final. The innings showed a total lack of regard (4 fours and 8 sixes) for the, until then, very effective Indian seam bowling and lifted Australia from 125/2 after 19.5 overs to 359/2 in 50.
In the 2001/02 series in South Africa, the Australian selectors turned away from Steve Waugh in One Day International cricket and granted the captaincy to the 29 year-old Ponting. The success that he enjoyed in the role is unprecedented. Australia registered 20 consecutive ODI wins over the course of the 2002/03 VB Series, the 2003 World Cup and the 2003 tour of the West Indies. Overall the Australian juggernaut has 56 wins, 11 losses, 1 tie and 2 no-results. As a true leader from the front, Ponting has a better record as captain - 2455 runs at 44.63 - than otherwise - 4800 runs at 41.38.
Whilst Ponting built his legacy at the helm of the ODI team, Steve Waugh continued to make the decisions in Tests, but when Waugh retired in 2004, Ricky Ponting took over immediately. To the date of his 79th Test cap, Ponting has only led Australia in one Test series, winning 3-0 in Sri Lanka. Series stats of 265 runs at 33.12 are not to shout about however.
There is absolutely no doubt that Ricky Ponting is a match-winner. His 27 'Man of the Match' awards (8 in Tests, 19 in ODIs) are firm testament to this. The only thing one can question is the quality of opposition and even there, seeing as 23 such awards have come against teams other than Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, he still shines.
Ricky Ponting has already settled in among the top five batsmen of the modern era and now we, the viewing public, await to see whether he can make such a claim in the Test captaincy stakes. He's new to the job and still inexperienced, but it won't be too long before we see the outcome of his task.
Additional points of interest:
Ricky Ponting has been dismissed the most times over his Test career by Darren Gough - 8. His average when dismissed by Gough is 32.12 and his tendency is to be caught or trapped LBW. Shane Bond has dismissed Ponting 6 times (most of any player) in ODIs and has had him caught on every occasion (4 times by fielders, 2 times by the 'keeper). When dismissed by Bond, Ponting averages a low of 17.83.
Waqar Younis and Craig White are the only bowlers to knock Ponting's stumps more than once in Test cricket. Both have done it twice and Ponting has been bowled a total of 16 times in 106 innings. No bowler has ever bowled Ponting more than once in ODI cricket.
As captain Ponting has been bowled less frequently in ODIs and caught more frequently.
Alec Stewart has held Ponting's edge on 6 occasions, more than any other fielder or wicketkeeper in Test cricket. On 1 such occasions, Darren Gough has been the bowler. Interestingly enough, no one else has ever caught Ponting more than twice. In limited overs cricket, Rahul Dravid, Stephen Fleming and David Richardson have caught him 4 times each.
Ricky Ponting has scored 3415 of his 6086 Test runs in Australia. At home his average is 55.98 with 10 hundreds and 14 fifties. Abroad he averages 52.37 with 10 hundreds and 8 fifties. In ODIs, Ponting averages 39.51 at home (6 hundreds and 19 fifties) and a significantly better 44.87 abroad (9 hundreds and 15 fifties).
Ponting has 7 ducks in his Test career and 6 of them have come in two series (3 each). He registers a duck on average every 18 innings. In ODIs Ponting has 12 ducks in 196 innings and averages 1 per 16 innings.
Headingley is Ricky Ponting's favourite hunting ground in Tests (of grounds where he has played at least twice). His 3 innings there to date read 144, 127 and 72. The ground where he has scored his most hundreds (3) is the Adelaide Oval. In ODIs Ponting has played 5 games at the Harare Sports Club for 219 runs at 109.50. He has 5 centuries at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and has scored 20.18% of his ODI runs there, whilst receiving 14.29% of his caps.
Ponting has registed more than one century at five different venues around the world (the Adelaide Oval - 3, the MCG - 2, the SCG - 2, Headingley - 2, the Kensington Oval - 2). His limited overs stats are not quite as sharp, having scored more than one century at only one venue - the MCG (5).
Ricky Ponting's conversion rate of fifties to hundreds in Tests is tremendous at 47.62%. His ODI conversion is not quite as good - 26.79%. On average Ponting scores a century every 6 innings in Tests and per 13 innings in ODIs.
Posted by Liam