da bet nacional： On a day when he broke the records for the most wins by any Test player and the most victories for an Australian captain, Ponting called the 170-run triumph over Pakistan the best in a long while
Brydon Coverdale at the MCG30-Dec-2009
Ricky Ponting has now become the most successful Australian captain, and the player with most wins in Test cricket•Getty Images
Ricky Ponting knows the winning feeling better than any other player in thehistory of Test cricket. But on a day when he broke the records for the mostwins by any Test player and the mostvictories for any Test captain, Ponting called the 170-run triumphover Pakistan one of the team’s best in a long while, and praised his young attackfor as good a bowling effort as the side had displayed in the last two years.When he came in to the team as a young man in the mid 1990s, Australia werejust embarking on a decade of dominance. The list of men to have played inthe mostTest victories is revealing, as the top eight are all Australians ofthat brilliant era. The win over Pakistan took Ponting to 93, passing ShaneWarne’s mark of 92.It also gave Ponting his 42nd success as a Test captain, surpassing SteveWaugh’s world record. But since the retirements of Warne, GlennMcGrath, Adam Gilchrist, Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden and various othergolden-era colleagues, things have become much tougher for Ponting. He haslost the Ashes for a second time, succumbed at home to South Africa and seenhis team slip as low as fourth on the ICC Test rankings.If nothing else, the dizzying highs and gut-wrenching lows have given himperspective. And so, after his developing side dominated Pakistan for fivedays at the MCG, with career-defining efforts from Shane Watson and NathanHauritz, Ponting was full of praise for his men. He was especially pleasedwith the performance of his bowlers, who have for three years struggled inthe shadows of Warne and McGrath, and are finally becoming their own men.”The bowling through the game has been as good as it’s been in our team forthe last couple of years,” Ponting said. “The way we bowled in the firstinnings in particular was just outstanding. The way we used the new balland we were able to maintain our discipline and execute our skills over sucha long period of time at the start of their first batting innings was a realfactor in the game.”It’s been a great game for us. It’s one of our best Test wins in quite awhile, starting right from the start of the game from the Katich and Watsonpartnership which really set the platform and set the foundation for a verygood Test match for us.”The highlights were many. Watson scored his first Test century on top of93 in the first innings; Ponting, Simon Katich, Michael Hussey and Hauritzall scored half-centuries; Hauritz collected his maiden five-wicket haul;and Mitchell Johnson continued to regain some of the spark he lost duringthe Ashes.Coming after a tightly-contested series against West Indies, the dominantdisplay was well-timed. There’s also a bigger future to consider: Australiahave only six more Tests before they attempt to regain the Ashes at homenext summer. Until then every win, every positive that can be taken froma match, will be seen as a stepping stone.”We are building a squad of players right at the moment that in a coupleof years time are going to be a very dominant team again,” Ponting said.”At the moment it is my job to keep the group together and keep challengingthem and keep helping the younger guys out and keep winning as many gamesof cricket as we can.”Ponting was keen to celebrate the individual efforts from several of hisnewer team-mates at the MCG, but less effusive about his own record-breakingachievements. He said he was proud of the milestones but was unlikely toreally appreciate them until he stopped playing.”They’re things I’ll probably be most of proud of when I’m done,” he said.”We all play to win games of cricket and be involved in a team that is winninggames of cricket. They’re things I’m very proud of, hopefully there are alot more wins around the corner and if we play the cricket that we’ve playedover these five days then we will definitely win a lot more games.”