Cricket: Ponting puts England to the sword

By DEREK PRINGLE

LEEDS - The ghosts of Headingley '81 returned on the first day of the fourth Ashes test, but instead of sporting three lions on their chest, they were wearing the baggy green.

Twenty years is a long time for memories to remain faithful, but if Ian Botham's arresting century here 20 years ago was the stuff of myths, it was all but trumped by Ricky Ponting who added his own name to the canon of breathtaking Test centuries as Australia reached 288 for 4.

Taking 113 balls to reach three figures, Ponting struck three sixes and 11 fours, each of them imperious.

The speed with which he latched on to anything remotely short to deposit it over the square-leg boundary was awesome and when he was finally out for 144, edging a lifter off Alex Tudor, some serious damage had been done. Unless there is a rapid turn-around in England's fortunes today, this is one more nail in the coffin marked "5-0 whitewash".

Considering his poor recent form, it was a remarkable knock.

Few batsmen, even on song, can out-finesse Mark Waugh with the bat, but Ponting managed it as he put England's mainly insipid bowling away with impunity.

Strokeplay of this calibre, as he and Waugh added 221 in 46 overs, quickly killed off England's ambitions following the prompt removal of Australia's openers.

Accustomed to playing second fiddle to his brother, Waugh again had to assume the role. He played some marvellous shots with his customary minimalism, reaching 72 before falling to Andrew Caddick in the final over of play.

His wicket would normally bring much rejoicing, but, in taking a running catch at cover point, Mark Ramprakash appeared to hurt the ankle he recently damaged playing football. Another injury now would make England's misery complete.

Although made in less difficult circumstances than Botham's ton, Ponting clearly likes Headingley. Four years ago he made his debut hundred here. But if that was a sublime innings, this probably exceeded it because of his terrible form. Before this test he was averaging 12 in the series with a highest score of 17.

The innings was chanceless, though England's fielders would probably contest that after he had edged his third ball low to Mark Ramprakash at third slip following Michael Slater's dismissal. Seen live the ball appeared to carry but Ponting, as Australian batsmen have done for decades, refused to budge.

As neither umpire on the field could be certain, it was referred to the television umpire, Neil Mallender. He was shown several angles as well as a magnified version. None was conclusive, so Ponting, in the only recourse open to Mallender, was given the benefit of the doubt.

The close call appeared to catalyse Ponting. For the next three and a half hours, he scarcely played a false stroke. Although he has a weakness against spin, England had dispensed with theirs to play four seamers, one of whom, Alan Mullally, had not played a test for 18 months.

Compared to his colleagues, Mullally bowled steadily if unthreateningly, but he did not excel himself in the field. Slipping at fine leg, he allowed Slater's miscued hook off the first ball of the match to pass underneath him for four.

Not long after, with Slater on 11, he dropped him, the right-hander's pull off Caddick bursting through his hands.

Caddick's opening salvo with the new ball again posed challenges, though once the ball lost its hardness he was punished, finishing the day with figures of 3 for 97.

Coming down the hill from the Kirkstall Lane end, he squared Slater up in his sixth over to win a dubious lbw. In his next over, Matthew Hayden followed suit, as he fell over a ball that kept slightly low.

After winning the toss, Adam Gilchrist, the acting captain, had opted to bat. After persistent rain earlier in the day, such a decision would have been considered heresy on the old-style pitches, though this one, with its bare ends and threadbare middle, a sight England will see often in India this winter, has confounded most.

Given that Australia have a spinner, Gilchrist's decision was undoubtedly based on solid principles. Apart from a couple of early scares it was the correct one as well.

England would probably have done likewise, though with Nasser Hussain recording his eighth lost toss in a row, it was irrelevant.

Hussain's luck with injury has been poor, but with regard to the coin, he must feel stuck in the opening scene of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

Stoppard likes his cricket, but for those with shaky memories, a coin is tossed and lands heads up a hundred times in a row; the point being, that scientific probability can tell you everything and nothing. As an undergraduate at Durham University, Hussain read science, yet after Ponting's blitz and Waugh's silken strokes, he probably felt like reacquainting himself with his old lab coat.

After enjoying the odd moment of parity in the first three tests, England have been out-thought and outplayed. It happened again yesterday when a brace of lbws by Caddick reduced the visitors to 42 for 2. But if controversy over Ponting's edge to Ramprakash followed, any momentum was lost as England's bowlers were blunted by Ponting's flashing blade.

Test matches, like the weather front whose rain held up play until 2.15 pm, is all about pressure and the way it shifts.

So far it is all being heaped on England, but since Australia's renaissance in the late 1980s, there is nothing new there.

- INDEPENDENT