Ricky Ponting: The only player to score a century in both innings of his 100th Test
Australia and South Africa went into the 2006 Sydney Test with the home team leading the 3-match Test series 1-0. With the SCG Test being the last match of the series, the Proteas needed to be on top to sneak in a victory.
A special occasion
The match was marked to be the 100th Test appearance for Ricky Ponting. After electing to bat first, South Africa posted 451/9 with the help of centuries from Ashwell Prince and Jacques Kallis, who scored 119 and 111 respectively.
South Africa declared their innings on the 2nd day evening where the home team lost three wickets for just 54 runs. Ponting, who was unbeaten on 14 overnight, took on the South African bowlers on the 3rd day alongside Adam Gilchrist. He scored 120 from 174 balls, smashing as many as 13 boundaries to become the first Australian to score a hundred in his 100th Test match.
Double whammy
A total of five players had recorded a century in their 100th Test match but none of them was an Australian. Adam Gilchrist’s quick-fire 86 guided the team to 359 and brought the deficit to 92 runs. Only 20.3 overs of play were possible on 4th day which forced the South African captain Graeme Smith to make a bold declaration. They ended up with 194/6 in only 42 overs after batting for more than an hour on the final day morning.
South Africa gave themselves 76 overs to take the 10 wickets and set a target of 287. By lunch, the Aussies reached 31/1 in 12 overs and seemed to be in a spot of bother whether to go for a win or settle for a draw. However, the duo of Matthew Hayden and Ponting came out with an intention of winning the game. Hayden got to his fifty in 81 balls while Ponting raced to his fifty in only 52 deliveries.
Ponting on fire
They earned 151 runs in the 2nd session without losing a wicket in only 27 overs. Australia further needed only 105 runs across 38 overs in the final session of the match. Hayden and Ponting added 182 for the 2nd wicket in only 33.2 overs, before the left-hander got out for 90. Ponting didn’t slow down after a wicket and with a boundary two overs later, he brought up his 2nd century of the game in only 111 balls.
In this process, Ponting became the first player to smash a twin hundred in his career’s 100th Test match and is also the only player with this feat to date. The Aussie captain finished unbeaten on 143 from 159 balls to see through an 8-wicket win for his team with 15.3 overs to spare. In the 15 years since Ponting’s record 100th Test match, only two players managed to score a century in their 100th Test appearance.
