The South Africans just cannot get Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting out, writes Mark Smit.
Ponting scored a century in each innings of the third and final Test against SA at the Sydney Cricket Ground over the New Year period.
Then he scored his magnificent 164 in the record-breaking one-day international at the Wanderers. At Newlands he scored 74 in the first innings.
At Kingsmead this week he has gone one better, scoring a century in each innings of the second Test against a demoralised South African bowling attack.
When he reached his century yesterday, Ponting joined India’s Sunil Gavaskar as the only players in cricket history to score a century in each innings of a Test three times. He first did it last November against the West Indies at the Gabba in Brisbane on the occasion of his 100th Test for Australia.
Only three South Africans have scored a century in each innings of a Test: Alan Melville, Bruce Mitchell and Gary Kirsten.
Melville made 189 and 104 against England at Nottingham in 1947, Mitchell made 120 and 189 not out against England at the Oval in the same series, and Kirsten made 102 and 133 against India at Calcutta in 1996-97.
Ponting made 1544 in 15 Tests in the 2005 calendar year, the second highest number of runs after West Indian legend Viv Richards, who made 1710 in 11 Tests in 1976.
- MARK SMIT