Ricky Ponting the great - Batsman, Skipper and Sledger

8. Retirement:

Ponting saw another high as a player when he became the first Australian and 3^rd batsman overall to make 13,000 Test runs. The feat came against India at Perth, when he scored 221, in a partnership of 386 with Michael Clarke who scored 329*.

He announced his ODI retirement after being dropped from the 2011-12 Commonwealth series and his Test retirement after the WACA Test against South Africa.

As a captain, Ponting led Australia in 77 Tests winning 48 and losing 16. He captained Australia in 227 ODIs and won 164 of them. Ponting’s highest ODI score of 164 came in a match that will be remembered by cricket fans of every age. Australia piled on 434 runs batting first against South Africa in the 5^th deciding match of the series at Jo’burg in 2006. Ponting scored 164 runs, along with Mike Hussey’s 81. They became the first team to make 400 in an ODI, but soon became the first team to lose a match after scoring 400, since Herschelle Gibbs with his 175, Graeme Smith with his 90 and Mark Boucher with his 50* made sure that South Africa won an impossible match making 438/9 in the process.