Posts Tagged ‘ricky ponting’
Virtually admitting that the days of their absolute domination is over,
Australia captain Ricky Ponting today said it would take a few years before the side returns as the same ruthless force which ruled world cricket with an iron fist.
“We’ve had an amazing run as a team . We have dominated world cricket for a long period of time,” Ponting said after his side went down to South Africa in the second Test in Melbourne yesterday.
“I’m still very positive and very sure that with some of these younger guys coming on that in a few years time we can get back up there and be dominating world cricket once again.
“It’s going to take a little while, there is no doubt about that. You can not expect young guys to come in and have sustain success. The young guys are the ones who generally lack consistency,” Ponting said.
“The gap between our best cricket and our worst cricket has been too big and we have to make that smaller if we want to win the next Test and if we want to stay in that top group of Test-playing nations,” added Ponting.
Ponting admitted it was a strange feeling for some of the players who have been used to wins only but felt there was no reason to press the panic button yet.
“A lot of players in the team aren’t accustomed to losing Test matches let alone Test series. We’ve all got to remain upbeat. There’s no time for panic or as (chief selector) Andrew Hilditch said, chop and change,” Ponting said.
Team India’s golden run continues, as skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and boys end the year (2008) on a ‘winning note’, with Dhoni’s brigade winning the Test series against England 1-nil.
Even though the final Test at Mohali ended in a draw, it was celebration time for the Indian players, as Dhoni’s boys lifted the trophy after an impressive performance against Kevin Pietersen’s side. This is just one of the many victories that Team India have scripted in the year 2008.
India outplayed England in the one day series to win 5-nil and before the ‘Winter War’ rages on, India trashed Ricky Ponting’s men to lift the ‘Border-Gavaskar’ trophy, an absolutely extra ordinary year for Indian cricket – which also saw Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble retire from international cricket.
India’s on-field performance are paying off the field following a successful 2008 season. Team India have retained the number two spot in ICC Test Rankings, this feat comes after Dhoni and boys won the Test series against England 1-nil.
Following their win the opening Test at Chennai and draw in the final Test, India surged ahead of South Africa taking a one point lead at number two slot, a position the India has held on briefly after trashing the Australians 2-nil.
Here’s a look at the ranking’s table:
Australia remains on the firing line after the defeat at Perth, and is still retaining the top spot with 130 points. Team India stands at the second place with 118 points, meanwhile South Africa fares just a point behind at 117. However the Proteas will be hoping to continue their good form ‘Down Under’ and retain the number two peg by winning the ‘Boxing Day Test’.
The former English players have again hailed Team India’s performances, and David Lloyd has gone on to declare, “India is definitely the number one Test side in world cricket, in fact the former England all-rounder believes that, India has always been a better side in the ‘Winter War’ – and at the moment, they are the best in business.”
Derek Pringle too has hailed the efforts of an united Team India but the former English paceman has especially, praised skipper MS Dhoni’ s leadership skills and his confidence, in leading a youngish team to the summit of world cricket.
According to David Lloyd, the famed former English player, “India has always been the better team in the series and in my opinion, constitutes the best team in the world in Tests at present. On the other hand, England has also played its part and can only learn from their Indian experience.”
Just as India end the year on a winning note, it’s time to cast a glance at India’s best wins of the 2008 season.
After umpires cheated India in Sydney and the ‘Monkey Gate’ saga, a spirited team India stunned the Aussies by an impressive fightback to conquer Perth. India denied Australia a record 17th straight victory by dismissing them for 340, going on to win the third Test at Perth by 72 runs.
What followed in the one-day series was phenomenal, with Dhoni leading India to script a historic win and lift the CB series. The Sachin Tendulkar being the star performer for the ‘Men in Blue, after a century in the first final, the ‘Little Master’ scored 91 to beat the Aussies on their own soil.
Again, in the home series against South Africa, India fought back from being 1-nil down to draw the series against Proteas. India also finished the Kanpur Test in 3 days, this being Dhoni’s first Test as the skipper with Kumble getting injured. Spinner Harbhajan Singh was adjudged the ‘Player of the Series’ for Team India.
It was revenge time for Team India as Australia arrived in India. India’s golden run continued, as the Aussies were demolished by Team India at Mohali, after Ganguly slammed a century and Tendulkar went on to become the ‘King of Test’ cricket by surpassing Brian Lara – as the highest run scorer in the Tests in first Test.
The final Test at Nagpur witnessed a historic Test victory by Team India, as Dhoni led India with Kumble retiring from international cricket. India reclaimed the ‘Border Gavaskar’ trophy, after 8 long years in the farewell Test of Sourav Ganguly. India humiliated the Australians and won the series 2-nil.
India at No.2 in Test rankings
Posted on: December 24, 2008
India reclaimed the number two spot from South Africa in the ICC Test Championship table by winning the two-Test series against England 1-0.
India won the first Test in Chennai by six wickets and drew the second in Mohali, enough to earn two ratings points and surge ahead of South Africa, a position the Team India had briefly enjoyed after their 2-0 home series victory over Australia recently.
Australia is leading the table with 130 points, followed by India who have 118 points and South Africa (117). However, South Africa can once again regain second position if it wins its current three-match series against Australia by 2-1 or 2-0, or level it 1-1. South Africa can even leapfrog Ricky Ponting’s side at the top of the ladder by a fraction of a point if it wins the remaining two Tests to sweep the series 3-0.
On the other side of the coin, if Australia wins the last two Tests it will not only widen the gap with South Africa to 15 points but will also dash the Proteas’ hopes of regaining the second position from India.Meanwhile, there was no change in the West Indies’ and New Zealand’s pre-series points and positions after their two-Test series ended in a 0-0 draw in Napier on Tuesday.
Rank Team Rating
1 Australia 130
2 India 118
3 South Africa 117
4 Sri Lanka 108
5 England 103
Opener Gautam Gambhir’s stupendous year with the willow today (December 24) helped him jump 10 spots to 10th in the ICC Test Rankings, making him the highest-ranked Indian batsman in the list.
The diminutive Delhi batsman has scored more than 1000 runs this calendar year, including three hundreds in his last five Tests.
Gambhir, who made 179 and 97 in the second and final Test against England at Mohali, amassed 361 runs in the two-match series against England at an average of 90.25.
The 27-year-old was in 37th place in October but had rocketed 27 places since then after scoring 824 runs in five Tests at an average of 82.4.
However, it is down-slide for his more famous team-mates. Virender Sehwag (13th) and Sachin Tendulkar (18th), who scripted a memorable win in the first Test against England in Chennai, as also VVS Laxman (18th), have slipped outside the top 10.
Rahul Dravid, who ended his extended lean patch with a century at Mohali, climbed two places to 28th. The same is for another star performer in Chennai, Yuvraj Singh who jumped 10 places to 46th.
Among bowlers, India’s player of the series against England, Zaheer Khan, has gained two places to 12th position while his team-mate Harbhajan Singh has gone also up two places to eighth.
Meanwhile, Shivnarine Chanderpaul of the West Indies has strengthened his hold on the top of the batting chart by becoming only the 25th batsman in the history of Test cricket and the sixth West Indian to reach the magic 900-point mark.
The 34-year-old Chanderpaul, who won the ICC Cricketer of the Year 2008 award at the ICC Awards in Dubai, reached the milestone while making 126 not out in the first innings against New Zealand in the Napier Test which ended in a draw.
There was no good news for Australia whose captain Australia captain Ricky Ponting has dropped three places to ninth — his lowest ranking since October 2002.
Mike Hussey has slipped two places to sixth, Michael Clarke has dropped one place to 12th and Matthew Hayden has slipped three places to 16th.
England captain Kevin Pietersen has returned to the top five for the first time in 14 months and now sits in fifth place after jumping three places due to a magnificent innings of 144 at Mohali against India.
Another new addition to the top 20 is South Africa’s AB de Villiers whose 63 and 106 not out was the cornerstone of South Africa’s six-wicket victory over Australia in a record final-innings run-chase of 414.
This performance has lifted him seven places to 17th in the rankings.The bowlers’ list is still headed by Sri Lanka’s iconic spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.
Australia’s Mitchell Johnson has broken into the top five for the first time after his man-of-the-match performance in the Perth Test where he had match figures of 11/159.
South Africa’s Makhaya Ntini recorded figures of 4/72 and 1/76 which have helped him rise to third place and is now just behind second-placed team-mate Dale Steyn who had figures of 4/162.
There is no change in the top five in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders as South Africas Jacques Kallis enjoys a commanding lead over New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori.
Harbhajan Singh and Ishant Sharma wrecked Australia’s top order to leave India on the verge of victory in the second Test in Mohali.
Australia was 5 for 141 at the close of play on day four after India set an improbable 516-run fourth innings victory target, giving themselves four-and-a-half sessions to seize a 1-0 lead in the four-match series.
At stumps, Michael Clarke (42 not out) and Brad Haddin (37 not out) were waging a grim battle after adding 83 runs for an unbroken sixth-wicket stand.
Off spinner Harbhajan took 3 for 23 and Sharma 2 for 29.
Led by opener Gautam Gambhir’s 104, India raced to 3 for 314 before stand-in skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni opted to end the second innings an hour after lunch.
Harbhajan removed both Matthew Hayden and Simon Katich in the last over before tea and then trapped Michael Hussey lbw soon after the resumption of play.
The very next over, Ishant Sharma clean bowled skipper Ricky Ponting for 2 with a magnificent cutting delivery.
Shane Watson was the last to fall, departing lbw to Sharma also for 2, as Australia lost 5 for 9.
Both Hayden and Katich took to the Indian attack early, smashing eight boundaries between them before being dismissed by Harbhajan in the off spinner’s first over.
Hayden was the first to go for 29, given lbw attempting a sweep shot before Katich (20) edged a loose drive to gully where Sachin Tendulkar took a brilliant diving catch.
Hussey fell for 1 when he was caught plumb in front attempting a slap through the onside.
India compound the pain
Earlier, opener Gambhir’s 104 and a breezy 68 not out by captain MS Dhoni helped the Indians to an intimidating final day target.
Australia’s bowlers toiled with little success on a dry and slow Mohali pitch where India scored 130 runs from 26 overs in the first session.
Left-hander Gambhir, who made his second Test century, and fellow Delhi batsman Virender Sehwag piled on 182 runs for the opening wicket after India had resumed on their overnight 0 for 100.
Sehwag was dismissed for 90, edging paceman Peter Siddle to wicketkeeper Brad Haddin to miss out on a 16th Test hundred on his 30th birthday.
The aggressive opener, who survived a caught behind appeal on 88, hit eight fours from 122 balls in three hours.
Gambhir hit seven fours and one six facing 138 balls as both openers fell before lunch chasing quick runs.
Ponting spread out the field but could not really stem the flow of runs.
Brett Lee, who has been below his best in the series and needed two stitches on an injury to his right hand, removed Sourav Ganguly for 27 in his only spell of the second innings.
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