Cricket: Ponting, Katich tons put Aussie in charge

CARDIFF - Ricky Ponting's batting is more about quality than quantity these days.

With his side at 1-60 in reply to England's 435, he strode to the wicket with Andrew Flintoff and Stuart Broad steaming in from both ends at Sophia Gardens.

Crowd favourite Flintoff had brought the ground to life with his fiery opening spell that led to Phillip Hughes' demise and had the fans in a frenzy as they booed Ponting to the crease.

But if Steve Harmison's bouncer slashing Ponting's cheek in 2005 didn't bother him too much, then good luck to the punters.

He produced a chanceless knock on the slow pitch, seemingly unperturbed by anything England could throw at him until he reached the 90s.

On 99 in the last over of play, he became particularly edgy and there was a fear he might just throw his wicket away.

But he didn't, pushing Andrew Flintoff to the off side on the second last ball and he thoroughly enjoyed his celebrations, running a big arc towards his teammates in the dressing room.

The performance showed that he was still the man for the big occasion.

Ponting's (100no) partner in crime at Cardiff, Simon Katich (104no), said the skipper was as hungry as ever to make up for the 2005 series loss in England.

"You can just tell about the way he goes about his business," Katich said.

"Ricky does not have to say much to obviously get everyone going.

"Those of us who went through what happened four years ago, it hurt and you can't forget that hurt.

"From that point of view there are a few of us that are really keen to make amends (for the 2005 series loss)."

By his high standards, Ponting's numbers have dropped off in the past 12 months but he has still scored 961 runs at a healthy clip of 43.68.

More importantly, he has regularly performed when his team has needed him most.

He partly conquered his demons in India last October by posting a hundred in Bangalore in the opening innings of the series.

Then on a difficult opening day deck in the Boxing Day Test, Ponting was the only man to bat with authority as he scored a memorable hundred.

On the first day of the return series in South Africa, the Tasmanian somehow managed to punch out an 83 at Johannesburg that would have been worth double anywhere else.

Ponting's (11,060) knock on Thursday saw him become the fourth batsman to score 11,000 Test runs and he has the highest average of the elite quartet.

India's Sachin Tendulkar (12,773) and West Indian Brian Lara (11,953) lead the standings and Ponting is fast closing in on Allan Border's (11,174) title as Australia's highest runscorer.

- AAP