Ponting elated over backs-to-the-wall effort

Ricky Ponting celebrated a magnificent turnaround and praised his side's ability to perform with their "backs to the wall". Ponting, joined by Jason Gillespie who had scored his first Test half-century, also spoke after play about on-field behaviour and walking, following an argument between Adam Gilchrist and Craig McMillan:

Ricky Ponting

On the match
It has been a huge turnaround for us. We almost ambled through the first two days, not playing anywhere near our best, and then played two of the best days of cricket that you're ever likely to see. It reminded us how we can play, and how we should play.

Whether the first two days were a hangover from India
Maybe, I don't know. On the first two sessions of the first day we played well, we might have run out of steam at the end of the day. We had a bit of a think about our tactics and we changed the way we bowled in the second innings.

On New Zealand's performance
They were very competitive for the first two days. Jacob Oram turned the game around in their favour on day two, and I thought they bowled well. But quite often our best qualities come out when our backs are to the wall. Adam and Michael [Clarke] changed the game for us, then Jason and Glenn [McGrath] drove a few nails in.

On the final partnership "killing them off"
That had a lot to do with it. You could see their body language change. Tailenders scoring runs can be pretty demoralising. What it gave us was momentum to play well for the rest of the game.

On batting on this morning
I was happy for them to bat as long as they could and keep New Zealand in the field a bit longer.

On the clash between Gilchrist and Craig McMillan
It was just a spur-of-the-moment five-second thing over the course of a four-day game - a slight difference of opinions. We were pretty confident that he nicked that ball, and he was telling us that he might not have.

On the argument continuing after the game
They just had a bit of a chat, it's all part of the game. It's all done and dusted.

On what happened when McMillan stood his ground
Generally when there's one that we think might be out and a batsman is standing his ground, quite often you are going to receive words. It happened in our innings with Justin Langer, and there's no big deal being made of that.

On there being animosity between the teams
No, not at all. I thought the game was played in an extremely good spirit.

On walking
That's not our philosophy at all. We've got one player on our side that walks. I think the whole walking thing has been blown completely out of proportion. Adam doesn't expect that of anyone else, he doesn't expect anyone else to walk. It's pretty simple. The whole thing seems very complicated.

On accepting the word of the fieldsman
It's something I've tried to do in all my series as captain and I brought it up at the referee's meeting before the series. Flem [Stephen Fleming] and I had some discussion before the game and on the morning of day two: he made it clear that most of his players were happy to go along and a few weren't.

Jason Gillespie
On his wacky half-century celebration
I was just having a bit of a laugh. I told a few clubmates at the mighty Adelaide Buffalos that if I ever got a Test fifty I'd ride my bat like the little person did in Happy Gilmore.

On getting a Test fifty
It's a good laugh - but I probably got more pleasure out of Glenn getting his than mine, because it was totally unexpected.

On sensing if New Zealand would capitulate
When talking to Glenn we thought the wicket was playing well because we were getting runs, and we thought it would be a pretty hard slog. Glenn got a couple of early ones and the momentum was with us, we got a few wickets and that was the end of it.