Happy birthday Ricky Ponting: Here's a look at his achievements
Ricky Ponting, Australia's greatest ever captain and one of the best batsmen in the world, turned 44 today. Punter, who captained his nation from 2004 till 2011 in Tests and 2002 till 2011 in ODI cricket, won two World Cups for Australia in 2003 and 2007. He retired from the game in December 2012. Here's a look at his achievements.
Ponting a celebrated runs scorer
Regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time, Ponting is one of the four players along with Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis, with 13,000+ Test runs to his name. Ponting is only second to Sachin in the leading run scorers in Test cricket with 13,378 runs. He is also third in the ODI charts with 13,704 runs.
Ponting one of the best captains ever
Ponting is one of the most successful captains in cricket boasting a stunning win percentage of 62.3% out of 77 tests. He is also, undoubtedly the most successful ODI captain ever, with two World Cups and the most number of wins as a captain. Ponting's win percentage in ODI cricket stands at 76.14 % out of the 230 matches he captained.
A legend of all time
Ponting has most runs in ODI history as captain
He has 30 ODI centuries, which is the most by an Australian. Punter has also led Australia to 26 consecutive World Cup matches undefeated. In the 2006-07 Ashes at home against England, Ponting went on to end the series as the top-scorer. He amassed 576 runs including two hundreds. He holds the record for scoring the most runs in ODI history as captain (8,497).
A true world champion
He is the most capped ODI skipper in history (230 matches). He holds the record for the most WC matches played (46). He scored a whopping 1,743 runs in the WC, that includes five centuries Further, he played the most number of matches as captain in ICC Cricket World Cup (29). He holds the record for most catches in a WC (28).
Other facts about the cricketer
Ponting made his Test and ODI debuts in 1995. He became the first cricketer in history to win over 100 Tests. The legend went on to marry Rianna Jennifer Cantor in 2002. He has two children with her. He has the joint-record for the most Test matches played by an Australian (168). He shares the record with Steve Waugh.
