To those who watched him field inside the circle in his prime, the sight of former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting effecting the most crucial of run-outs via direct-hits remains etched in memories. If not mesmerising people with his batting, Ponting was doing much the same when he was fielding.
In all, Ponting ran batsmen out for a record 80 times in 560 international matches during his career, the most by any fielder in the history of the game. Well ahead of next best Jonty Rhodes (68), Sanath Jayasuriya (63) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (57) among other top fielders. He also took 364 catches to go with it.
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Nearly a decade since his retirement, Ponting revealed during the ‘Lessons Learnt With The Greats Podcast,’ with Shane Watson, the exact reason why he was so immensely successful at direct-hit run-outs as a close-in fielder.
"I fielded most of my one-day career at backward point. As soon as the field went out and there was a deep point, I would always move three or four steps finer towards third man but walk a different angle, so I’d walk an angle towards the bowler’s end stumps," Ponting said.
Ponting, currently the coach of the Delhi Capitals (DC) in Indian Premier League (IPL), further explained how getting a head start towards the ball helped him remain a step or two ahead of the batsmen.
"If I was going to get the run out from a ball pushed out towards deep point … the ball that was blocked in on or around point, I was making an angle towards the bowler’s end stumps so I was already moving in that direction and I was a couple of steps ahead of the batsman," he said.
"Once (the batsman) played it down and saw it go into point, I was a lot closer than he thought I was going to be. I think that was one of the reasons I probably got as many run-outs with direct hits at the bowler’s end, because I’d got a few yards on them and they didn’t really know where I was going to be," Ponting added.
(Inputs from Hindustan Times)
