Ponting and short pitch bowling

[The Outsider]

12 instances of the best player of short pitch bowling getting out to short pitch bowling in the last 17 test matches, most of the time playing the "best hooker/puller in world cricket" shot. I think at least part of the reason for his decline as a batsman is his failure in hooking/pulling as successfully as he could do a few years earlier. The percentages have really gone down for him. 1. http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/406199.html 9.4 caught! short ball, pulled in the air, not so controlled this time, it goes high in he air picking out the fielder at deep square leg who takes a straight-forward catch 32/2 2. and 3. http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/406191.html 35.4 Roach to Ponting, no run, short ball, 146 kmh, Ponting turns his head away from the ball and gets caught like a deer in the headlights, the ball smashes into his elbow and lobs up to gully where Benn dives to take it, that was clearly off the elbow, Ponting tries to show no pain initially but he eventually takes a moment to move towards square leg and compose himself, the physio's coming out with the miracle spray 44.5 short and the Aussie skipper pops it to short leg, right at the body in at his ribs and he is gone - brilliant bowling forces him to play defensively to the man in close 134/8 4 and 5. http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/406190.html 71.6 a mistimed pull shot, short ball and Ponting on the back foot pulls in the air, a miscued shot straight into the hands of Bravo at midwicket. A big wicket for West Indies. 233/3 22.5 bowled! played on! Ponting is back to a length delivery outside off, attempting to cut through the off side, he gets it horribly wrong, managing only a thick bottom edge onto the pitch and into the stumps 68/2 6. http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/345974.html 26.6 bowled him! Broad's bowled him! Ponting goes back and chops it on, his off stump pegged back 85/2 7. http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/345972.html 38.3 got him! He's out! A quick bouncer, Ponting went for a hook and got a thin edge through to Prior. Onions has bowled so, so well this morning 163/4 8. http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/350473.html 64.3 the bowling change works, Morkel bowls it short of a length and Ponting swivels and goes for his favourite pull over square leg, unfortunately he picks McKenzie who's patrolling the boundary 219/2 9. http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/350472.html 26.5 Ponting gets a bit of a shock spotting the fielder in the deep, Kallis bangs it in short and the ball comes on to Ponting a lot slower than he would have liked, he goes through with the front foot pull but there's not much of a follow-through with the shot, the ball lands down Amla's throat at deep square-leg 99/2 10. http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/351680.html 51.1 the bowling change works, O'Brien bangs it in short of a length outside off but the ball doesn't rise as much as Ponting would have expected it to, he shapes to play a booming pull past midwicket but the ball travels quickly off the bottom of the bat straight to Fulton at short midwicket, Ponting mumbles something to O'Brien while walking back 155/3 11 and 12.http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/351679.html 7.1 Ponting goes and Australia are in deep trouble! The extra bounce has Ponting all the sea, he bangs it short of a length on middle and gets it to move away late, Ponting is squared up as the ball rears up uncomfortably on his midriff, the ball lobs off the top of his bat and travels to How at second slip 23/3 8.2 what was Ponting trying to do? The ball pitches outside off pn a good length and moves away with the angle, Ponting tries to fetch that and play a front foot pull, gets a top edge to Redmond at short midwicket, he takes a look at the pitch before walking off, whatever it is that shot was unwarranted 40/2 :punter:

[vvvslaxman]

Add this albeit one dayers. Against Praveen kumar on both occasions 1) 2.3 got 'em, now then, now then, short and outside off, Ponting goes for the pull and can't get hold of it, spoons an easy catch to Yuvraj at mid-on, that seemed to stop on him a bit, Yuvraj can't contain his excitement, Kumar is ****-a-hoop, what a start for him, someone must be planning a party in Meerut today 8/2 2) 4.2 Ponting goes! The batsman looked to pull a short one round from outside off, the ball not quite getting up, and the inside edge crashes hard on to the sticks 19/2

[Rajan]

Thats lot of work to prove the point. well done!

[MUMBAISKIPPER]

also ponting is vulnerable outside the off stump...you have to work out a plan to get him out.

[DomainK]

wow....that's amazing. Poor :punter:

[akshayxyz]

hmm, We may bring down pwnting as much as we like (find weaknesses etc.) and love our God, but Ponting has been quite consistent on yearly basis (average for a calendar year never went below 42)..Agreed that there may be a bit of superficial-ity in this stat, but still a good indicator of consistency on yearly basis. (though best indicator would be a moving average sort of thing). http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/7133.html?class=1;template=results;type=batting As a comparison, Sachin went below 40 in 5 calendar years. http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/35320.html?class=1;template=results;type=batting As per this parameter, Lara performs a bit better. http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/52337.html?class=1;template=results;type=batting Of course we can attribute these to reasons like - Australia being dominant force during these years, Ponting having better support, relatively weaker oppositions etc. etc. But, IMO, he does earn some extra points for this 'yearly' consistency.

[vvvslaxman]

Irrelevant post

[The Outsider]

hmm, We may bring down pwnting as much as we like (find weaknesses etc.) and love our God, but Ponting has been quite consistent on yearly basis (average for a calendar year never went below 42)..Agreed that there may be a bit of superficial-ity in this stat, but still a good indicator of consistency on yearly basis. (though best indicator would be a moving average sort of thing). http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/7133.html?class=1;template=results;type=batting As a comparison, Sachin went below 40 in 5 calendar years. http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/35320.html?class=1;template=results;type=batting As per this parameter, Lara performs a bit better. http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/52337.html?class=1;template=results;type=batting Of course we can attribute these to reasons like - Australia being dominant force during these years, Ponting having better support, relatively weaker oppositions etc. etc. But, IMO, he does earn some extra points for this 'yearly' consistency.

The thread is regarding his growing frailty against short pitch bowling - something which many around the world would consider unthinkable given how he is hyped as the best player of short pitch bowling. This might have been true a few years back, but is certainly not the case anymore. Anyhow, I am not sure what parts you were reading in those stats because in '96, '98, '01, '07, and '09 - five calendar years his average has been below 40 - 20, 29, 38, 38, and 39 respectively.

[Cricketics]

I think he is still scoring lot of runs with those hooks and pulls. I have watched also every punter's knock in past couple of years and he has been scoring plenty of runs with those shots. Yes, it's his favorite shot and he likes playing that often and hence he has gotten out on in too. Good work on stats though Shwetabh, must have been a lot of worHk to dig all those dismisals, but Punter has been a little agitated to play his favorite shot is all i can say and hence the a mount of dismisals. Same time he has scored plenty of runs too. Hit some fantastic shots against Windies, One of them was a six on Roach's bowling.

[cowboysfan]

he is not going to stop hooking/pulling.lets hope it will prove to be his eventual demise.

[The Outsider]

I think he is still scoring lot of runs with those hooks and pulls. I have watched also every punter's knock in past couple of years and he has been scoring plenty of runs with those shots. Yes, it's his favorite shot and he likes playing that often and hence he has gotten out on in too. Good work on stats though Shwetabh, must have been a lot of worHk to dig all those dismisals, but Punter has been a little agitated to play his favorite shot is all i can say and hence the a mount of dismisals. Same time he has scored plenty of runs too. Hit some fantastic shots against Windies, One of them was a six on Roach's bowling.

Yeah, he scores a lot of runs through the stroke as well, but it looks like the percentages are tilting in favor of the bowlers lately. BTW, with the new scorecards on cricinfo it's very easy to get the dismissal part of the commentary if you just click on the '+' sign on the player on the scorecard.

[punjabi_khota]

hmm, We may bring down pwnting as much as we like (find weaknesses etc.) and love our God, but Ponting has been quite consistent on yearly basis (average for a calendar year never went below 42)..Agreed that there may be a bit of superficial-ity in this stat, but still a good indicator of consistency on yearly basis. (though best indicator would be a moving average sort of thing).

WHAT A ****IN JOKE....you are reading his SR and calling it Average...:hysterical::hysterical::hysterical:

[Cricketics]

BTW, with the new scorecards on cricinfo it's very easy to get the dismissal part of the commentary if you just click on the '+' sign on the player on the scorecard.

Kool. Never noticed that. Good feature this.

[Sachinism]

WHAT A ****IN JOKE....you are reading his SR and calling it Average...:hysterical::hysterical::hysterical:

:haha::haha:

[akshayxyz]

The thread is regarding his growing frailty against short pitch bowling - something which many around the world would consider unthinkable given how he is hyped as the best player of short pitch bowling. This might have been true a few years back, but is certainly not the case anymore. Anyhow, I am not sure what parts you were reading in those stats because in '96, '98, '01, '07, and '09 - five calendar years his average has been below 40 - 20, 29, 38, 38, and 39 respectively.

My bad - looks like there is some formatting issue - i first saw Sachin's avg, and when you click Pontings (and Lara's) link, the columns seem to shift a bit.. (when i scroll down do the "yearly" section) Even I was surprised at the "consistency" and did not bother to double check... I am happy now :) Ohh and all this after couple of extra-large drinks..

[akshayxyz]

So, effectively I was looking at Punter's (and Lara's) SR column as compared to Sachin's Avg

[akshayxyz]

Some one come up with moving average kind of stat and settle this once and for all.

[vvvslaxman]

The discussion is not about that. This is about vindication of Gayle's claim of Punter being vulnerable against short stuffs .

[achilles]

Ponting's an over assuming tw@. He holds a very high opinion about himself but he's nothing but an arrogant piece of junk. I still remember Srinath running to apologize to Ricky, after bowling a bouncer which hurt him and Ricky abusing Srinath like there's no tomorrow. Also, Punter is notoriously famous for encouraging his bowlers to bowl short and injure the batsmen. When that Kemar Roach bouncer struck him on the elbow, it was nature's way of justice.

[punjabi_khota]

Bumpity bump bump. :punter: Mohammad Sami to Ponting, OUT, caught! short ball, Ponting hooks it out in the air out to deep square leg, but there's a fielder out there in place for the hook shot and it's duly collected by Umar Gul diving forward to take an excellent catch. RT Ponting c Umar Gul b Mohammad Sami 0 (1b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.00