Exhilarating: A feature of Michael Clarke’s brilliant 2011–12 summer was two stellar stands with the man he replaced as Australia’s captain, Ricky Ponting. Australian Cricket Summer Guide

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‘Reassuringly, his defence was solid and he instinctively flowed into several pull shots like the Ponting of old. The battle was compelling, the crowd totally absorbed…’

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Few deny Ricky Ponting’s standing as Australia’s finest batsman since Don Bradman. Talented, passionate and prolific, he has been a champion of his generation. But age catches up with even the mighty, and with an average of 25 in Australia’s first seven Tests of 2011–12, Ponting’s right to his place at No. 3 was questioned like never before. He was 37, no longer captain and batting with little of the command or authority of yesteryear. An embarrassing lbw against the New Zealanders, when he lost balance at the crease and walked even before being given out in home town Hobart, could easily have been the cue for Australia’s revamped selection panel to immediately promote one of the younger ones.

Further fuelling the debate, selection supremo John Inverarity insisted that no player, no matter how distinguished, had an ongoing right to Test selection.

Ponting was among those told to spend Christmas week at coach Mickey Arthur’s batting school in Melbourne. And with a pair of 60s in the first Test of the summer against the Indians at the MCG, Ponting survived for Sydney and the second of the summer’s feature Tests. His career, however, was still very much on the precipice.

Meanwhile, his successor as captain, Michael Clarke, had been outstandingly dominant, making three centuries in four Tests, one in Sri Lanka, one in South Africa and another back in Australia. His leadership was decisive and positive – as was his admiration and support for the beleaguered Ponting.

‘I know his game backwards. He’s working hard. He’ll come good,’ he said in the lead-up to the Boxing Day Test.

After an even first three days against the much-vaunted Indians in Melbourne, the Australians won the final day comprehensively and were 1–0 ahead approaching the New Year Test in Sydney.

Bowled out for under 200 on an action-packed opening day, India hit back with veteran swing specialist Zaheer Khan taking the first three wickets for just 23. At 2–8, Ponting entered on a hat-trick. When Ed Cowan succumbed, Australia was 3–37 and teetering. Clarke was averaging just 26 in Sydney. An early play-and-miss against bouncy Ishant Sharma added to the early tension. The Australians were being seriously challenged.

Ponting was playing only when he had to. Reassuringly, his defence was solid and he instinctively flowed into several pull shots like the Ponting of old. The battle was compelling, the crowd totally absorbed. A signature Clarke cover drive or two eased the pressure and by stumps the pair had advanced Australia’s score to 3–115, Clarke the aggressor on 47 and Ponting 44, their unconquered stand already worth 79.

The Indians had remained competitive, young expresses Umesh Yadav and Ishant bowling with genuine heat and the 33-year-old Zaheer bending the ball around menacingly, if not at the speed of old.

It had been two years and 32 innings since Ponting’s thirty-ninth Test century. Could he turn a promising start into his fortieth hundred and again shape Australia’s destiny?

Despite their outstanding solo careers and having batting’s ‘x’ factor, he and Clarke had so often underachieved as a pair. Only twice before in 27 partnerships had they shared in three-figure stands, the triple-century against Pakistan in Hobart two years earlier the only one which could truly be termed decisive in the winning of the match.

Ponting seemed calm and his footwork assured on resumption, and within minutes of play starting on the second morning, he reached his half-century. The reception was generous and long-lasting, most of the 30,000-plus crowd standing to cheer. Clearly they were buoyed and wanted more. Ponting was defending the good ones and taking full advantage of those over-pitched or short. Every single was enthusiastically applauded as India’s modest first innings score was approached and then passed.

Other than a play and a miss at Zaheer, who went around the wicket in the opening over, Clarke was also comfortable and the pair scored at a run a minute against a ball rapidly losing its sheen.

A classic Clarke cover drive on the eve of lunch saw him register three figures, Ponting being 97 at the interval. During the final over the pair had run two leg byes, the crowd groaning in disappointment when the runs weren’t given to Ponting.

Immediately after the break, with his score on 99, he struck a ball firmly just slightly wide of mid-on, called for a single which wasn’t there and made a desperate dive for the crease. Zaheer Khan’s high-speed throw from close range only just missed the stumps. Had it hit, Ponting would have been out. He slowly picked himself up, dirt all down his shirt. The reception for his hundred was even louder than for local hero Clarke. In half a day’s batting, Ponting had reminded everyone of his class, especially those who had already written his obituary.

His matchwinning fightback with Clarke was ultimately to be worth 288 at almost four an over, Clarke’s contribution 154 and Ponting’s 122. An even bigger stand (334) was to follow that afternoon and into the fourth day between Clarke and next-man-in Michael Hussey, Clarke declaring with his own score on 329 and Hussey’s 150, the Australians winning Sydney’s one hundredth Test match by an innings.

At a packed press conference, Ponting told of the frustration he and Clarke had both felt in not being able to bat together for as long as they’d wished.

‘Through our careers, even in the dominant teams, we haven’t actually spent a lot of time together out in the middle,’ he said. ‘We had a great partnership in Hobart, and we know how important we are to the team and probably over-emphasised that a bit too much last summer [against England] and put a little too much pressure on ourselves to be the men that were going to hold the hopes of the team up.’

CENTURY STANDS IN TESTS BETWEEN RICKY PONTING AND MICHAEL CLARKE
386	v India, Adelaide, 2011–12
358	v Pakistan, Hobart 2009–10
288	v India, Sydney, 2011–12
210	v India, Adelaide, 2007–08

With their different techniques, Ponting felt the pair should have prospered more often.

‘Michael tends to use his feet against the spinners a bit more than I do and we both probably play fast bowling a little bit differently as well. So if you sat back and looked at it that way you’d think we’d be a very successful partnership together, but so far it hasn’t been as productive as we would’ve liked. Hopefully that can continue to change.’

Perth was to be a quieter Test for them both before they finished the summer in Adelaide with imperious double-centuries, Ponting 221 and Clarke 210 as Australia completed a 4–0 thrashing of a fast-fading, directionless India. Their stand this time was worth a massive 386 and came at better than a run a minute, the pair batting three full sessions. From the time he started his innings with a straight drive against Yadav, to the longest boundary in the country, Ponting was in supreme command, Bill Lawry saying he hadn’t seen him play as well for years.

For the second time in three Tests the pair had shown themselves to be Australia’s most outstanding batsmen. For Ponting, it kept alive his dream of one last Ashes tilt in England in 2013.

Prolific: Michael Clarke with Ricky Ponting during their epic 386 run fourth wicket stand against the Indians in Adelaide, 2012. Both made double-centuries. Peter Argent