Dubai, Feb 26 (SocialNews.XYZ) Former captain Ricky Ponting believes that injury-ravaged Australia’s high-scoring affair with England has set them up to make a deep run at the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 even in the absence of their ‘big three’ of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazelwood.
Australia fought back from early setbacks to close the highest-ever total in ICC Champions Trophy history to seal a five-wicket win in their campaign opener. While the Aussies’ production in the field against England did little to dispel earlier concerns, conceding 351-8, chasing down the mega total with 15 balls to spare.
Australia’s chase marked the highest-ever by any team at an ICC white-ball tournament, surpassing the previous record set by Pakistan at the 2023 Men’s Cricket World Cup against Sri Lanka when the former chased down 345.
The win also marked the second-highest ODI chase by Australia and the highest successful chase against England in the format.
Speaking on The ICC Review,Ponting was was buoyed by the fact that Australia’s bowling unit gained crucial tournament experience and was challenged in the manner they were against England.
“That could be really good for a team going forward. I was a little bit worried. But even though they had some injuries, every time Australia puts a team on the park, you know they’re going to be very competitive.
“Winning a game like that when… it might’ve been 75-25 probably in England’s favour going into the second innings, to be able to pull off a win like that. That’s the sort of thing at the start of a tournament that can do wonders for a team,” Ponting said.
Ponting further hailed Josh Inglis, who had registered a maiden ODI century ( 120 not out off 86 deliveries), to shoulder a historic chase for Australia.
“Inglis was absolutely magnificent. He’s now made a hundred in every format for Australia and he’s made a Test hundred only a couple of weeks ago and then his first one day hundred now. You talk about moments, well it doesn’t ever become a bigger moment than that. That was a game on the line, the team needing him to stand up.
“The way that he went about it, the way that he went through the gears, the way that he was able to switch hit and hit powerfully to the leg side off the pace of Archer and Mark Wood. That was an unbelievable knock,” said the ICC Hall of Famer.
Source: IANS
The post Every time Australia puts a team on the park, they’re very competitive: Ponting appeared first on Social News XYZ.
