If you get a reprieve, you might as well make the most of it. If Ricky Ponting had been given out caught off the third ball he faced, it would have added to his lengthy bad trot: in his previous 11 Test innings, his highest score was 17. Here at Headingley he proved that form is temporary but class really is permanent.

The interesting thing about his innings is not that not only did he score at virtually a run a ball but he did it wherever that ball was bowled. The ability to score all round the wicket tells us something about Ponting's eye and his determination to play his way out of a bad patch.

Ricky Ponting: player profile

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