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Ponting admits he needs a break

Roar Guru
16th April, 2009
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Ricky Ponting admits he needs the break he’ll get when he relinquishes the Australian captaincy to Michael Clarke this weekend.

Ponting has usually been reluctant to rest, preferring to continue leading from the front despite his team’s draining workload.

And he says it feels strange to be missing a whole tour as his deputy Clarke leads the national squad to the one-day series against Pakistan in Dubai and Abu Dhabi starting next week.

But Ponting accepts he needs the rest which will come after Friday’s fifth and final ODI against South Africa in Johannesburg, where Australia are seeking a confidence-boosting consolation win after going 3-1 down.

Asked if he had regrets about temporarily handing over the captaincy, Ponting said: “Yes and no”.

“I think I’ve come to grips with it over the last 12 months anyway,” he said.

“It has happened a number of times in a couple of one-day games and a couple of Twenty20 games that I’ve missed.

“It’s nothing new for me. For a whole series is something a little different.”

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Ponting is also skipping the Indian Premier League and is expected back at the helm for the Twenty20 World Cup in June and the Ashes series which follows.

In the meantime, he said Clarke would gain valuable leadership experience.

“Pup (Clarke) is learning all the time about the role and the different things that come with the role,” Ponting said.

“For him to get that added experience as well will hold him in good stead down the track.

“I don’t worry about it. If I felt that I could go and play well, then I’d be going.

“But right at the moment I feel like I need to get away and have a bit of a break, so that’s the way it is.”

After winning the Tests against South Africa 2-1 with an inexperienced side, Australia have struggled in the limited-overs series and have dropped to an all-time low of third on the ICC’s ODI world rankings.

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However, victory in Friday’s day-night match (starting at 2230 AEST) would lift Australia back into second place on 123 points, with India on 122 and South Africa on 126.

Ponting, who made 65 runs in the first three one-dayers before compiling a fine 53 in game four at Port Elizabeth, is keen for himself and openers Brad Haddin and Michael Clarke to lead the way again after all three made half-centuries on Monday.

“For me, it has been in the back of my mind all the time,” Ponting told AAP on Wednesday.

“I take a lot of pride in my performance and the team’s performance.

“We can’t win the series now but we can certainly win our last game and it’s a chance for me to make a big score and hopefully the team to play well.

“If we do that, it will give the guys some extra confidence going to Dubai.

“We need to take every confidence we can out of this last game.”

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Ponting averages 123.67 in four ODI matches at Wanderers, including 140 not out in the 2003 World Cup final and his career-best 164 in the “438” game in 2006.

“Certain venues around the world just happen to feel a bit better for you,” Ponting says.

“Even just looking back at the start of this tour, I made a really good 83 in the first Test here.”

Marcus North, Cameron White, Stuart Clark and Ben Laughlin appear unlikely to come into the side for game five.

“I don’t see that there’s a great need to make a lot of changes right now,” Ponting said.

“What this last game becomes all about for us is having some pride in our individual performances and our team performance.

“The series is won but it’s certainly not over and done with.”

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