Ponting gets out of jail

Quite amazingly, Australia came back from over 200 down in the 1st innings to beat Pakistan at the SCG - an incredible come back in anyone's book. The Aussie side can relax knowing they've got themselves out of jail, but some of Ponting's comments seem a little bizarre! In an article on Cricinfo titled "Ponting's toss decision vindicated" there are a couple of paragraphs that make strange reading:

Ponting was heavily criticised from the first day for his decision to bat on a juicy surface that set up Australia's fall for 127. By the end his logic was satisfyingly sound. "I backed us at the start of the game to make more runs in the first innings than what I thought Pakistan could make in the last innings," he said. "As it turns out we got 120-odd and bowled them out for 139 in the last innings of the game."

At one stage during his post-mortem a relaxed Ponting teasingly asked all those in the press conference who had doubted his decision to raise their hands. All the Australian journalists' arms went up. "I feel better now," he said. He smiled, knowing that when it comes to Australia's Test team he knows best. "It comes down to results and we've got a great result here," he said. "So I look like a genius where I didn't a couple of days ago."

Que? His logic is anything but sound and he certainly doesn't look like a genius! You don't bat first because you think you might just score more than the opposition will get in the last innings! He's trying to retrofit an idiotic decision to demonstrate some kind of thought process. It's a bit like Haroon Lorgat the other day - just admit you got it wrong and move on. The other thought that occurs to me is that this really was a battle of two terrible captains - Ponting versus Yousuf whose captaincy was apparently "bizarre" - i.e. very defensive when Pakistan needed 2 wickets to wrap up the Australian 2nd innings.

On another note, well batted Mr Cricket.