Mike Selvey summed it up as a contribution to the game in his Guardian piece today:
In reality, he knew that if the conditions pertained throughout (as they did) by rights this should have been a close, low-scoring encounter. It was neither a 102 all out pitch nor a 445 one. Against disciplined bowling a batsman was never truly in.
This is a batsman of genius, though. Having got rid of England so quickly Australia, he knew, would be facing similar conditions with bowlers who ought to be conditioned to them. Steve Harmison got rid of Simon Katich, and in hostile manner. If England were not to be allowed to settle into a rhythm and chip away at the innings, a statement had to be made, a calculated risk taken, and in the company of Shane Watson it came from the captain. Watson marmalised James Anderson's opening deliveries and raced on, but when Ponting came to the crease at the end of the fourth over the opener sat back and watched.
England broke ranks and discipline went. Harmison's first ball shaved his edge, and an attempted pull saw no contact. From then on he was merciless, hooking and cutting the attack to ribbons. It was a counterattack of the most thrilling kind and it took an exceptional player, knowing the risks, assessing the situation, and having the skill, confidence and sheer presence, to carry it out. By the time Stuart Broad pitched one up and had him lbw, the game was done.
Yeh, Sambit Bal and a good bit on it too:
Cricinfo - Blogs - From the Editor - Ponting's was the innings that mattered
Ponting's was the innings that mattered
Marcus North was Man of the Match for his second hundred of the series, Michael Clarke scored more runs than him, and even Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann nearly scored as many but, for me, Ricky Ponting’s was the innings of the match – and, arguably, even the innings of the series.
Rightly, batsmen are judged not merely by the number of runs they produce but the quality of those runs. It was clear from the merry romp of England’s ninth-wicket pair that batsmen can do plenty of things once the pressure has lifted. With nothing to lose, and nothing to fear, Broad and Swann were able to flay the same bowlers who terrorised their top-order colleagues for two successive days. Ponting, though, switched on his act when the match was still open.
When a Test side gets bowled out for about a hundred runs on the first day, it is natural to assume that the conditions are tilted heavily towards the bowlers. Australia entered the match with a history of weakness against swing bowling. It cost them the series in 2005 and the Test at Lord’s this summer, and when the ball swung for one session at Edgbaston they lost seven wickets for 77. In most cases, bowling your opponents out for 102 in the first innings is good enough win a Test, but only if your own batsmen don’t perform as badly.
Ponting had gone missing after a big hundred in his first appearance in the series, and the pitch at Cardiff was so benign that only six Australian wickets fell in 180 overs. In the previous innings, when Australia were in danger of losing the Test, he was bowled through the gate by an offspinner, the species that has troubled him throughout his career. And he came to the crease here after Steve Harmison, a man returning to the Ashes battle, had claimed an early wicket with a nasty, steepling ball that Simon Katich was forced to fend off in front his face. The first ball he faced from Harmison zipped through Ponting’s bat and his body, not far from the inside edge.
From here, Ponting produced 78 off 101 balls. At one point, he was 32 off 20 balls, with five fours and a six. It was thrilling, counter-attacking batting on a pitch that still had plenty for the bowlers. It can be argued that England bowled poorly to him but often a great batsman in supreme touch can have that effect on bowlers. By the time he was out Australia were ahead by 38 runs and would have had to bat like zombies to lose the Test from there.
As the years roll by, the scorecard will reveal Ponting’s contribution as one of the half-centuries in a match Australia utterly dominated. The truth is that it was the defining innings of the match. It had every ingredient that makes a great innings: counter-attack, supreme skills, the purest of strokes, and most of all, coming when it truly mattered.
