http://www.senore.com/Cricket/RT-Ponting-c2377 enjoying batting with freedom – Cricket News Update
Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has claimed that he was enjoying batting with freedom after stepping down from the team’s captaincy.
The veteran player led his side to two http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625 World Cup victories in 2003 and 2007 respectively. However, he was unable to repeat the same in this year’s Mega Event and the Kangaroos were knocked out in the Quarter-Final round.
Prior to that, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c749 on home soil under the captaincy of Ponting.
All this led to Ponting stepping down from captaincy of the team. He scored a century in his last innings as the captain, which helped him retain his place in the team as a senior member.
Since then, the 36-year-old has been scoring runs with consistency. He scored a solid half-century against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 in the first One Day International (ODI) of the three match series in Centurion on Wednesday, October 19, 2011.
The innings guided the tourists to a comprehensive win by 93 runs and Ponting was declared player-of-the-match.
The veteran stated that not being captain of the team has made him much more relaxed now. He added, “Just a lot of the things that you have to deal with as captain that people probably don't necessarily see, I'm not having to deal with anymore. I'm a lot
more relaxed with the things I can do outside of the training paddock. When I get back to the hotel, it's pretty much just my time and catching up with the boys.”
Ponting further revealed that he has been spending a lot of time with the youngsters in order to guide them in the right way. He stated, “What I'm trying to do now is spend as much time as I can with the young guys, away from the cricket ground as well,
learn a bit about them and try and help them to learn as fast as possible. I'm really enjoying that role.”
Australia will play a couple of more ODIs against the Proteas before heading to the two match Test series. Ponting will be looking forward to contribute a couple of solid performances in the longest version of the game as well.
Tags: