There comes a time in every great player's career when the milestones crop up so frequently that instead of being proof of ability they begin to weigh heavily. Each one says: "How much more of this can you take? Why not just sit under the shade of this tree and rest a while?"
Ricky Ponting, youthful no longer at 35, has not been short of milestones in this series. There was the 3,000th ODI to start the NatWest Series at the Rose Bowl when he suggested deadpan that it felt like he had played in most of them.
Then today they came all at once: his 13,000th one-day run, with only Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya ahead of him, his 350th appearance and with it a world-record 219 as captain. It would be enough for lesser men to make backs ache and feet burst into blisters.
Instead, his heart burst into song. Ponting's 92 from 93 balls was an ideal retort to the suggestion that Australia, having lost the series, were in danger of a 5-0 whitewash and that his own appetite to lead Australia into next year's World Cup might diminish as a result. This was no angry riposte, driven by desperation. This was an innings of deliberation and exactitude, a reminder of his lasting prowess. He has averaged between 40 and 43 in ODIs for 10 years; there is absolutely no evidence of decline.
Post a strong first-innings total, Ponting had insisted all series, and early wickets would expose what he believes is an unbalanced England middle order, a proven batsman light with Luke Wright and Mike Yardy at No6 and No7. His masterful innings allowed him to test his theory. When England slumped to 90-4, it looked convincing. England will find solace in Yardy's first international fifty.
Ponting admitted that to go 3-0 down had been embarrassing: "We are not that far away but you don't need to be that far away in international cricket to be shown up. I thought the way we controlled the game was pretty good. It says a lot to be able to pick yourself up and do what we did today."
England's captain, Andrew Strauss, admitted: "Ponting and Clarke played really well in the middle period – the period we had done best in during the first three games. We tried seven bowlers, but we just couldn't stop them scoring. Today's performance just wasn't good enough."
It was apt that alongside Ponting in a stand of 155 in 26 overs, the foundation for Australia's victory, was Michael Clarke, who has already assumed the leadership in Twenty20 and who remains the heir presumptive in Tests and ODIs. Clarke also missed his hundred, stranded on 99 not out as Steven Smith's late flurry of boundaries happened to rob him of the strike.
"Pup" played well, England abandoning their tactic of browbeating him with Stuart Broad short balls, with Graeme Swann at short-leg, after a couple of overs. But the sense, on and off the field, is that Ponting remains top dog. Never at any stage was there a feeling of another captaincy in transition. Let Pup chase a few Twenty20 bones around the field; Top Dog has the red, raw meat of an Ashes series and a World Cup to contend with.
It might have turned out differently. His first aggressive shot was a mistimed pull off Broad over short mid-wicket, but he gathered himself immediately. Tim Bresnan was flicked expertly off his pads and caressed through the covers in successive balls. The next time Ponting drew attention to himself, driving the returning Bresnan to the cover boundary, he was past 50. A hundred for both would have been richly deserved.
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