Cricket: Aussie master blaster

Nathan Astle (left) celebrates dismissing Australia's captain Ricky Ponting who hit 13 fours and four sixes in his century. Picture / Reuters

Ricky Ponting underlined the difference between good and great at Eden Park yesterday when he struck a century of breath-taking audacity to turn the third test in Australia's favour.

Hard on the heels of New Zealand's perambulating effort of the opening day, Ponting resurrected the test with a scintillating 105 off 110 balls, peppering the boundary hoardings and beyond with 13 fours and four sixes.

The two-and-a-half-hour frolic allowed Australia to end the day at 219 for four, only 73 runs shy of New Zealand's first innings total of 292, with Michael Clarke and Jason Gillespie at the wicket, and Simon Katich and Adam Gilchrist still to come.

On a pitch that seems to have challenged most other batsmen, Ponting began his assault with a six to get off the mark and continued to flay the New Zealand attack, particularly the seam trio of Chris Martin James Franklin and Nathan Astle.

Anything pitched short usually required spectator assistance to be retrieved.

Anything full disappeared like a tracer-bullet, and anything in-between was milked for a procession of low-risk runs.

When his 22nd century finally arrived off his 104th delivery, Ponting had taken another bold step on Australia's list of all-time century-makers, moving past Neil Harvey, Justin Langer and David Boon to sit in fifth place.

Ahead of him are four of Australia's most revered and famous batsmen: Steve Waugh (32 centuries), Don Bradman (29), Allan Border (27) and Greg Chappell (24).

But far from basking in the significance of his effort, the Australian skipper said later he was disappointed that he departed when he did, as there was a lot of cricket still to be played, and the dismissal had set his team back.

"It was a pleasing knock but the way I got out was a bit disappointing, especially when we were in such a strong position," he said.

"To lose myself and Damien [Martyn] tonight was a bit of a setback and now we have to make sure we have a couple of good partnerships first thing in the morning.

"Hopefully we can push ahead and get a little lead."

New Zealand, after sending the crowd catatonic on the opening day, managed to add 93 further runs yesterday, mainly though the efforts of Daniel Vettori who struck eight fours in an unbeaten 41, and Brendon McCullum.

Eventually dismissed for 292, the home side tasted some early success with the wickets of Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden, before normal service resumed with the onslaught from Ponting.

Brilliantly caught down the leg side by McCullum in the 41st over, Ponting had featured in a 103-run third wicket partnership with Martyn, who fell a short time later to the off-spin of Paul Wiseman.

Ponting said he was honoured to advance his mark on the all-time centuries list, but that statistics would never be a motivation for him, and that he was annoyed to get out when he did.

"It's nice to make hundreds, but more importantly it's nice to make scores that the team can really do with, and it would have been nice to have got a really big score in this game," he said.

"Twenty-two test hundreds is a great achievement for any player I guess, but that's not the sort of thing that motivates me, it's more about trying to be part of a winning team.

"I've played 80-odd tests now and I think as a batsman that you should have those sorts of numbers if you've played that long."

New Zealand

First innings

C. Cumming lbw b Gillespie 5
J. Marshall c Hayden b McGrath 29
H. Marshall c Ponting b Warne 76
S. Fleming b Kasprowicz 65
N. Astle c Langer b McGrath 19
L. Vincent b Gillespie 2
B. McCullum c Gilchrist b McGrath 25
D. Vettori not out 41
J. Franklin c Katich b Warne 3
P. Wiseman c Gillespie b Warne 8
C. Martin c Clarke b Kasprowicz 0
Extras (4b, 13lb, 2nb) 19
--Total (116.2 overs) 292
Fall: 1/15 (Cumming), 2/53 (J. Marshall), 3/179 (H. Marshall), 4/183 (Fleming), 5/194 (Vincent), 6/228 (Astle), 7/247 (McCullum), 8/262 (Franklin), 9/288 (Wiseman), 10/292 (Martin).

Bowling: G. McGrath 34-20-49-3, J. Gillespie 25-8-64-2, M. Kasprowicz 30.2-7-89-2 (1nb), S. Warne 23-4-63-3 (1nb), R. Ponting 4-1-10-0.

Australia

First innings

J. Langer b Franklin 6
M. Hayden lbw b Franklin 38
R. Ponting c McCullum b Astle 105
D. Martyn b Wiseman 38
M. Clarke not out 18
J. Gillespie not out 1
Extras (2b, 5lb, 6nb) 13
--Total (for 4 wkts, 65 overs) 219
Fall: 1/8 (Langer), 2/84 (Hayden), 3/187 (Ponting), 4/215 (Martyn).

Bowling: C. Martin 11-3-53-0 (3nb), J. Franklin 10-1-49-2 (2nb), N. Astle 16-5-44-1, D. Vettori 12-3-31-0 (1nb), P. Wiseman 16-3-35-1.