CricDigs Blogs

Ponting was all praise for his team, as they beat the South Africans in the test series that was supposed to be a revenge tour for the Kangaroos after they were recently humiliated at home. Agreed, that his team did a great job of winning the series 2-1 but did he have to go on claim that this side was probably the best ‘young’ team in the world of cricket and it would be hard for any teams to ‘catch-up’ with them. Just a few days after these post-match comments, the T20 series began and behold the great Ponting, what happened?

He lost it 2-0 to the South Africans. Well, it is not just the defeat but the fact that the team was playing a 35-yr old bowler (Harwood) who was making a national debut for the T20s. So what happened to the theory of his team being the ‘young’ force to reckon with? After the first T20 match, Ponting said that he was playing bowlers best suited for the conditions and age had nothing to do with it. Okay, so he changed, rather twisted his own comments to his advantage. Then, the second T20 game happened and the Aussies lost again. What did Ponting do now?

Well, he simply didn’t make any more excuses and meekly wizened up to the fact that T20s are a serious affair now and losing T20 series does raise a question about the team in question. However, he was quick to add that the team was searching for newer (I hope he actually meant ‘younger’ this time) players who could be part of the one-day squad. So, we all believed that Ponting would be leaving behind his own set of excuses and stories and move on to the ODIs. The series hasn’t even begun yet and he has already passed comments that how Watson and Symonds are being missed and that the ‘younger’ guys are failing to match-up to the expectations. Well, if that is the way he really thinks, then why did he gloat about his charge of young world-beaters to begin with? I don’t recall the man being hammered on the head by too many bouncers, so what is really going on with him? Plz stick to one set of theory Skippy…