Game one has been finished and Australia won. Six months ago that probably could have been expected but the Windies do deem to have improved- they tied the ODI series and 20/20 (although that is like tying a raffle).
Two things I did like out of the game, and I did not see a live ball- it was all replays. The come back of the Windies and the captaincy of Clarke.
The opposition make 450 in the first two days and he declares behind and wins. I just can’t imagine ponting making that call. The Windies were soft in the second innings but there were good signs.
Hopefully, for both teams, not a flash in the pan.
Yes, I’m more sure than ever that at least one, probably both, of the Ashes Ponting lost were due to his timid, unimaginative, and juts plain erratic captaincy. Yet more proof, if it were needed, that the best players don’t make the best captains.
I’m glad we won of course, but it seems to me for once on this tour we are playing below ourselves; we are IMO a better team than the Windies yet they are matching us in almost every game. Not a great sign.
I feel that Ponting is taking a lot more abuse than he deserves in the wake of the retirements of some all-time greats. Yes, during a large part of his captaincy he had some of the best players in history at his disposal. But even if you have a great team, you simply don’t win sixteen Tests in a row without being a decent captain. He only lost the Ashes in 2005 by two runs, and that seems to have been largely forgotten.
I do think Clarke is a really good leader, though. Wasn’t expecting that, and it’s a very pleasant surprise.
Three. Ponting has lost the Ashes three times. 2005, 2009 and 2010/11. Both seems to imply two losses.
I feel no shame in reminding you of this - we’ve been regularly smashed prior to this and it was a long hard slog getting through those years. I’m damned if we’re going to have one of those victories taken off us!
Molesworth, Ponting also didn’t have Don Bradman or Victor Trumper or Steve waugh. he undeniably had a massive amount of talent in the team until the last few series and what he was given he seemed unable to develop. I can’t recall one new player flourishing under his leadership.
I still do recall however when in England, 20 minutes before play, Glenn mc Grath injured his knee and couldn’t play. So, without his number one strike bowler he still sent the opposition in.
Ponting as a batsman I had a lot of time for- not so much as a captain.
And Cumbrian, no worries. i hope I can rub Australias win in after the next series.
I tell you it didn’t cause much hilarity in my household as I was sitting up late at night.
First the staggering news that McGrath had injured his knee by treading on a ball at practice, You are kidding- has he never trained before- how does this happen!
Then- Ponting with his silly smirk- “Oh we will have a bowl…” You mean no one has told you McGrath is not playing or you don’t realise Plan b is after Plan A is rescinded…
After seemingly 7 million runs I am seeking medication. I would not have been good company for you that day
To be fair, you did bowl us out on the first day. For 407, with our batsmen hitting 10 sixes. Geoffrey Boycott called Ponting a moron for the rest of the series.
A guy can whitewash England. Win 16 tests on the trot. Win back to back World Cups without losing a single match. And you still think he was a poor skipper?
Sending England in might still have worked if Jason Gillespie hadn’t so spectacularly failed in 2005. I fail to understand how a bowler of that quality completely and utterly losing his action was the fault of the captain.
I agree that Ponting was the worst Aussie captain since Kim Hughes, but the fact is that he was not the one rolling his arm over. eg Hilfenhaus has bowled much better under Clarke, but it’s hardly Ponting’s fault that Hilfenhaus was utter shit in the last Ashes.
If it’s fair to say that Ponting only won more Tests than any other Test captain in history because he had the luxury of some great bowlers at the top of their form, then surely it’s also fair to say that in the latter part of his captaincy his bowlers completely underperformed and bowled some absolutely pathetic dross.
To put it another way, are you claiming that the way that Mitchell Johnson was an absolutely brilliant bowler for a season or so was due to Ponting being a great captain at that time? Because I wouldn’t.
I’m not claiming that Ponting was a great captain, but if, as a captain, you throw the ball to a guy and he subsequently bowls like total crap then that’s his issue, not yours.