Ricky Ponting looking to end career on a high note
The dynamic and ever so popular Ricky Ponting is considered to be one of the most fiercely competitive cricketers of the modern era. His performance for Australia over the past 15 years has brought him to the ranks of some of the most brilliant players like
Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara. Although these players have achieved a great deal of success in their careers, Ponting has managed to achieve much more at the team level.
Many international cricketers dream of playing in a World Cup final, Ponting has played in four. Thrice he ended up on the winning side and has lifted the ultimate trophy two times as captain of Australia in 2003 and 2007. He has been an integral part of
the Australian team for the last 15 years, which many people feel is one of the best cricket teams that have ever graced the field.
Recently, Ponting has faced a lot of criticism as Australia lost three Ashes series in the last five years under his captaincy. His team failed to make any impression in Test cricket during 2010. At the end of an amazing career, Ponting is facing his worst
time as an Australian cricketer, as he might lose his job as the captain of the national team if Australia fails to do too well in the World Cup.
The 36-year-old Australian captain might not be the most destructive batsman in the world, but he can still win a match on his own. He has been out of international cricket since the 2010 fourth Ashes Test at Melbourne due to a finger injury, which might
be a blessing in disguise as he will be fresh for the upcoming mega event.
Ponting has scored more than 13,000 runs in One Day International cricket and is currently at the third spot behind Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya. In his illustrious career, Ponting has 29 ODI hundreds under his belt, only Tendulkar has more.
Because of the Aussie performance in 2010, majority of the cricket pundits are not rating them as favourites for the ICC World Cup 2011. However, this does not worry Ponting much as Australia was under-estimated in the previous World Cup as well, but no
other team was able to stop Australia to defend its title for the second consecutive time. The Aussie captain said in a statement that, "At the last World Cup, there was a fair bit of negativity about our team, about where we were heading as a one-day team.
We'd lost the CB series in Australia, went to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 and lost the series 3-0. You can understand that there were a few doubts about our team. And we know what happened there. We went through it undefeated."
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 as well. All the major teams will make a huge mistake by under-estimating Australia.
Although this might be the weakest Australian team in the last 15 years, but without a doubt it is still one of the best in the business. The Australian victory against England by a huge margin of 6-1 in the recently concluded ODI series is proof of that.
Ponting would love to prove a point in the upcoming World Cup, which is most probably the last one of his career. He does not have the support of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Adam-Gilchrist-c918, Mathew Hayden, Shane Warne and Glen McGrath anymore, but he has a young bunch of hungry cricketers
who will not let their leader and team go down easily. It will be exciting to see how Ponting uses his skills and extensive experience to guide http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 to another amazing World Cup victory.
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