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For a man who says he doesn’t covet personal milestones, Ricky Ponting certainly knows how to celebrate them.
The Australian skipper will play his 300th one-day international on Friday (2330 AEST), and if his previous record on milestone matches is any guide, the West Indies could well be up for a torrid time at Grenada’s National Stadium.
Hundreds in Ponting’s 50th, 150th and 250th one-day internationals – plus a 50 in his 100th ODI and twin tons in his 100th Test – certainly don’t make for pleasant reading for a Windies side already down 1-0 in the five-match series.
But as for the man himself, such numbers could well come as a bit of surprise.
Never one to delve too far in to his own statistics, Ponting struggled this week to recount his performances in marking milestones.
The one game Ponting could remember was, funnily enough, his least impressive of the bunch – and it had nothing to do with the 10 runs he scored coming in at No.8 against a hapless Zimbabwe in Harare either.
“I think it was my 200th match, and I remember Tim Nielsen, who was the assistant coach at the time, making up a shirt and drawing something in black texta all over a white T-shirt and then presenting it in the warm up to me,” Ponting said.
“That was about as good as it gets.”
Not quite.
Ponting’s two biggest one-day scores have both come in milestone games.
He belted 145 against Zimbabwe in Delhi in match 50 back in 1998, before pummelling 164 some 200 games later in Johannesburg during South Africa’s famous 438-run chase victory. In between, Ponting hammered 119 against England in his 150th appearance, while scoring an even 50 against Pakistan in his 100th.
After 13 years of international cricket, records and milestones are starting to come thick and fast for Ponting.
Already this tour, he has passed 10,000 runs to become the first Australian to reach five figures in both Test and one-day cricket.
On Friday, he will become only the second Australian behind Steve Waugh (325 ODIs) to reach 300 games.
Barring any serious mishaps, Ponting will likely become the country’s most capped one-day player by early next year, and could yet challenge Allan Border’s national Test run-record in time for the 2009 Ashes.
His attitude to such records, though, is unlikely to change during his playing days.
“It’s all probably something I’ll look back on when I’m finished and be proud of,” Ponting said. “I’ve never been one to even talk about such things in the rooms or anything like that.”
He does, however, understand the outside interest and appreciation in playing 300 games, having himself been full of admiration when close friend and former Kangaroos AFL premiership star Glenn Archer celebrated the milestone last year.
“I really respected him for that fact that he could stay in that game for that long and play 300 games, so I guess other people see it in a slightly different way that I do,” said the three-time World Cup winner.
“There might be some other people at home thinking what a great effort that is to play 300 games.
“And it is a great thing to have I guess.
“I said when I played 100 Tests I was probably as proud of that achievement as anything else, being in the game for that long.
“So again, I guess this is a good achievement because it says that you’ve been in the game for a long time.
“Obviously out of those 300 games I’ve had a lot of great memories, a lot of World Cup wins and a lot of individual game wins as well. So it is a nice achievement.
“For me, though, it has always been just about the next innings, or the next opportunity.
“I’ve always gone out to do my best to win a game, and that’s what it’s all about for me, winning games and sharing other people’s success as well.
RICKY PONTING
One Day International Record
M Runs Avg HS 100s
299 11,031 43.25 164 26
Debut: v South Africa, Wellington, Feb ’95MILESTONE GAMES
50th: 145 v Zimbabwe, Delhi, April ’98
100th: 50 v Pakistan, MCG, Feb ’00
150th: 119 v England, MCG, Dec ’02
200th: 10 v Zimbabwe, Harare, May ’04
250th: 164 v South Africa, Johannesburg, Mar ’06
300th: ??? v West Indies, Grenada, June ’08MOST ODIs
Sachin Tendulkar (Ind) 417
Sanath Jayasuriya (SL) 412
Inzamam-ul-Haq (Pak) 378
Wasim Akram (Pak) 356
Mohammad Azharuddin (Ind) 334
Rahul Dravid (Ind) 333
Steve Waugh (Aus) 325
Chaminda Vaas (SL) 316
Sourav Ganguly (Ind) 311
Phillip de Silva (SL) 308
Muttiah Muralitharan (SL) 306
Shaun Pollock (SA) 303
Brian Lara (WI) 299
Ricky Ponting (Aus) 299MOST ODIs (AUS)
Steve Waugh 325
Ricky Ponting 299
Adam Gilchrist 286
Allan Border 273
Glenn McGrath 249
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