Ponting Impressed with White’s Performance

BANGALORE - The final result of the first Test match against India must certainly have not impressed Australian captain Ricky Ponting, but he did find some positives from the game. One of them was the performance of debutant Cameroon White. “I think we still have a long way to go, but I was impressed with the way Cameron White bowled, it was a good sign.

By Jai Prasad V Rai

Published: Wed 15 Oct 2008, 12:45 AM

Last updated: Tue 14 Nov 2023, 4:08 PM

May be we didn’t get the wickets but he did well, put his hand up and I am sure this experience will help him. Not just him, but also Shane Watson, Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson will get better with the experience. There was always talk about our inexperienced guys but they did well in this match and the more they play the better their exposure is.”

“I don’t know what you mean by saying White isn’t aggressive. I think he is someone like Anil Kumble. Lots of side spin, over spin and basically wicket to wicket. Now you don’t call Anil less aggressive - would you? White will learn.”

Ponting felt that though the match ended in a draw, Australia dominated the match. “We dominated the match, there is no doubt about that. We were ahead for a large part and at the end of the fourth day I was pretty excited about the possibilities. We came out aggressive today morning, got some runs and then put them in.”

“I am not surprised with the Indians played today, they play a lot of drawn matches,” he added.

“I thought if Sehwag fired then they might make a chase; for us he was the danger man but once we got him, it was all about getting regular wickets but then Sachin and Laxman had that partnership that deprived us a win.”

Coming down heavily on Zaheer’s comments on Aussies scoring at a slower pace, he said: “May be he (Zaheer) can have quite chuckle thinking about what he said. I don’t know what he meant by saying that. As batsmen we would love to score a run a ball but in these conditions it does get a bit difficult. Overall I am happy with the way we played and we were in with a chance of winning this game but it didn’t happen and the Indians weren’t good enough to win this match; so overall it was a good Test.”