And what exactly was I intending all day long? Overrate indeed was the issue behind him persisting with parttimers. The argument is not whether he did to save his ass but that it was a stupid move..
How could it be a stupid move when he was forced into bowling the part-timers?.
He in fact did it in Perth earlier that year having Symonds and Clarke bowl when India were 6 down for not many, again for the same reasons show he did not learn from his mistake either.
Yes same thing again, he was forced into bowling part-timers. Ponting at times didn't manage the bowlers well but Ponting wasn't the one bowling with the long run ups in the 4-man pace attack in that Perth tests.
It seems to me you people seem to think that the over-rates issue is something that international captain can't take seriously. The Nagpur & Perth test clearly prove otherwise..
Of course, but having Watson, the best bowler in that entire series and Krejza, the maverick wickettaker bowl in tandem against an unsettled and under pressure wicketkeeper and tailender was definitely a better bet to take wickets than bowling two raw parttimers.
The partnership of 100+ was indeed the key why India won that match from a seemingly loseable position.
I dont know what pressue you are talking about that Dhoni was under during that test. Dhoni was batting very well all series. Plus Harbhajan has a habit of making runs againts AUS, so again there is no way once can say for sure that Dhoni/Harbhajan would not have stood up, maybe not for a 100 partnership - but still stood up.
After all no opposition team has chased more than 276 to win in IND. I certainly dont believe they would have chased down such a score if they had managed to restrict IND.
In hindsight it was a stupid decision.
No at the time it seemed stupid since no one knew what was going. Since everything was explained, in hindsight it was fairly understandable why Ponting had to bowl the part-timers.
Why did he fail to enforce overrates earlier? Because he was all the time discussing/setting elaborate field changes/arguing with umpires etc that he lost out when mattered. That again is his own fault.
Oh right so discussing field changes is not part of the game?
I dont recall Ponting arguing with the umpires at any point of that test or anything substantial.
Plus again Ponting was not the one bowling, no captaining can rush a fast bowler through his run up. It was collective team failure, which is pretty shocking given that AUS had Krejza in the team. It wasn't a 4-man pace attack or anything
Why was the series not "alive" in Nagpur? India were leading 1-0 only into that test and had Aussies won it, they would have retained BG Trophy. Ponting getting banned or not banned was not the question there.
I edited:
IF the series was still alive in Nagpur
(AUS winning the test, although a draw would have kept the BGT), i'm fairly sure Ponting would have bitten the bullet & if AUS had indeed managed to win that test via a historical run chase in IND. I dont believe Ponting would have been banned that easily
My point about Ponting not potentially getting banned is because if he had defied the match ref & bowled Watson, i believe CA could have worked out something with the BCCI or ICC & Ponting may have just lost his entire match-fee or something. Since him getting banned would have been crazy especially IF AUS had ended up winning, the uproar from AUS would have not been good..