Farewell Punter!

Another South African tour of Australia has been conducted. The first test was a draw in the closely contested match. The South Africans fought hard for a draw in a match where Australia were unlucky to come away without a victory.

However the 3rd test was one of the most anticipated tests of all. A few days prior to the game starting Australian Legend, Ricky Ponting announced that he was going to retire from international cricket at the end of the test. This lead to many questions and a big hole in Australia's batting line-up. Phillip Hughes, Usman Khwaja and Alex Doolan are looking like one of them will fill the hole in Australia's batting line-up. At least on the good side Watson was fit again and ready to play.

In the game South Africa posted a first innings total of 225 with Du Plessis scoring 78*. Australia's experienced a collapse with Ponting making 4 and Wade high scoring for Australia with 68. South Africa scored a massive total of 569 with Amla scoring 196, De Villiers with 169 and Graeme Smith getting 84. On debut Elgar received a pair. Australia was set the run chase of 632 to Win the Test, Win the Series and gain the #1 test spot. Australia held on for the 13 overs until tea. A newspaper front page was seen with the text 'Only 592 to go'. 2 balls into the 4th day and Warner is caught for 29. Watson comes and then goes with 25. Then Ponting walked out to face his last test innings. Expectations were high! South Africa wven formed a Guard of Honour as he walked out on the pitch. Shaking Graeme Smiths hand and then the action gets underway. A news article on cricinfo say that Smiths hero is in fact Ponting. Unfortunately he got out for a mere 8 off 23 balls. Cowan got out for 53 while Clarke got 44. However Starc (68 off 43) and Lyon (31 off 43) got a 87 run partnership and the PBs.

Here are some stats about Ricky Pontings Career.

165 Tests
282 Innings
13346 Runs
High Score: 257
Average: 52.75
41 Hundreds and 62 Fifties
194 Catches