‘Worst decision ever, by any captain’: Shane Warne slams Ricky Ponting’s 2005 call
When Mike Gatting’s England defended the Ashes crown after winning the MCG Test in 1986, little did England’s cricketers and the fans know that it would take two decades for the Three Lions to get their hands on The Urn again. Australia won 8 Ashes series on the trot from 1989 to 2002, dominating England like never before.
The 90s saw the power dynamics in cricket shift to Australia. Mark Taylor continued the good work after Allan Border had helped the Ausies rise from the ashes. Steve Waugh took the team to a different pedestal all together and it all resulted in absolute world domination under the captaincy of Ricky Ponting.
England, who had spent most of the 1990s in mediocrity, were seeing their very own mini revival under the captaincy of Michael Vaughan, when the 2005 Ashes series was played. A 9-wicket haul from Glenn McGrath saw England cut to size in the opening Test at Lord’s.
The second Test at the Edgbaston in Birmingham is considered one of the finest to have ever been played. England managed to tie the series by winning the match by just 2 runs, the narrowest of margins.
Australia needed 107 runs more to win the match on the fourth day but had only two wickets in hand. What transpired that day has gone down in the history of the game as one of the most thrilling days of Test cricket.
Some of these players got together to watch those great moments on Sunday. Michael Vaughan, Kevin Pietersen, Marcus Trescothick, Steve Harmison and Shane Warne joined Rob Key and Nasser Hussain to look back on the thrill of the day.
Warne, known for not mincing words, said that Australian captain Ricky Ponting made a huge error by deciding to bowl first on that wicket.
“Nasser [Hussain] goes down as one of those people that had one of the worst-ever decisions when he said ‘we’ll have a bowl, thanks’ at Brisbane [in the 2002/03 Ashes], but at least at The Gabba the ball swings or does something on day one. This was a road and the ball did nothing.
“Punter’s [Ponting’s] decision to bowl first was just the worst decision ever, by any captain. So take a back seat, Nas, Punter has got your back,” the leg spin wizard was quoted as saying by foxsports.com.au.
Warne, who was on the pitch and shared a crucial partnership with Brett Lee was dismissed hit wicket and that brought last man Michael Kasprowicz in to bat. He said he couldn’t believe it after getting out.
“The night before, in the last over, Steve Harmison bowled Michael Clarke with a slower ball with what proved to be the last ball of the day. Needing 107, you’ve got myself, Brett Lee and Michael Kasprowicz left, but I still believed we had a chance.
“England’s attack in that series was fantastic. The ball was reverse swinging, they were bowling 90mph plus, Harmy and Freddie at their best, but I just had to hang in there and then you never know.
“My plan in this series was to get right across my stumps when batting, but then here I went too far across and somehow my foot hit the stumps – I still don’t know how?! I could not believe it,” Warne said.
England came close to winning but a few lucky edges and dropped catch meant the shoulders were dropping and Brett Lee was on the verge of taking the Aussies to a 2-0 lead from where England would have found it difficult to come back.
“I thought that was it. I thought that was the game right there. It was around that time that I thought ‘we’re done’,” Vaughan said about the moment when Simon Jones dropped Kasprowicz.
Paceman Steve Harminson managed to get Kasprowicz out with a bouncer as England clinched the match by 2 runs and eventually won the series 2-1 to win the Ashes after 21 years.
HT
