Tasmania gain Ponting boost
February 22, 2012 17:37:16 UK
Tasmania's quest for their third 50-over title of the last five years has received a massive boost with the news batsman Ricky Ponting will play for them in the upcoming Ryobi Cup final.
The Tigers are scheduled to play South Australia in the Ryobi Cup decider at Adelaide Oval on Saturday and they have included the 37-year-old in their 13-man squad for that match.
Tasmania are 10/11 to win their upcoming Ryobi Cup final against South Australia, who also are 10/11 to emerge victorious.
Ponting is widely considered Australia's greatest ODI batsman and the Tigers chairman of selectors Michael Farrell said their entire squad is overjoyed to have a player of such quality among them for the final.
"Ricky Ponting's inclusion injects world-class qualities into our team and we know that he is very excited at the prospect of playing in this final for Tasmania," Farrell said.
Ponting flopped miserably in the first five matches of the on-going Commonwealth Bank Series, after which Australian selectors finally decided to boot him out of the ODI squad.
He managed to score just 16 runs from 66 deliveries from five outings against India and Sri Lanka and therefore, the selectors' decision seems justified.
The three-time World Cup winner played 375 ODI matches for Australia, scoring 13,704 runs at an extremely healthy average of 42.03 runs per innings.
Soon after being axed, he announced his retirement from ODI cricket but vowed to continue playing Test cricket for Australia.
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