Ponting stands tall

Peter Roebuck applauds Ricky Ponting's innings of resolve in Adelaide. He writes in the Sydney Morning Herald:

Ponting's restraint was impressive. Throughout his innings he played to a plan, collecting singles as a taxman does revenues and pushing the ball into gaps in the old-fashioned way. Disdaining familiar straight drives and leg-side flicks, he reached forward and guided the ball past square leg or else leant back to cut. Refusing to leave his crease and keeping a close eye on Harbhajan Singh's doosra, he advanced at his own unhurried pace.

It's just another difficult period this tough cricketer has encountered and overcome, says Roebuck.

Ponting's first task was to demonstrate that he could win cricket matches and so sustain the domination of the Taylor and Waugh years. In some respects it is easier to inherit a losing side with lower expectations. From a distance it seemed that Australia could only go downhill. It is part of the Tasmanian's achievement that he has managed to defy gravity.

In the same paper, Alex Brown says Adam Gilchrist's exit after his brief innings - perhaps his final in Tests - was "not the most controversial walk of his career, but certainly the most emotional."