By IANS
Sydney : With his 26th one-day ton here Sunday, Australia captain Ricky Ponting has climbed to the second spot in all-time century scorers’ list, behind Sachin Tendulkar, though the Indian maestro is far ahead with 41 centuries.
Ponting scored 124 off 133 balls against India in the Commonwealth Bank Triangular Series to overtake Sanath Jayasuriya’s tally of 25. With this ton, Ponting has emulated the feats of New Zealand’s Nathan Astle and Sri Lanka’s Jayasuriya, with most hundreds against India, five.
Ponting, whose win helped Australia beat India by 18 runs, is now the fourth Australian to post two centuries at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), joining his countrymates Geoff Marsh, Allan Border and Adam Gilchrist. Jayasuriya holds the venue record with three hundreds in only eight innings.
The Australia captain equalled his previous highest at the SCG — 124 off 127 balls Sri Lanka in 2006.
During the course of his innings, Ponting became the fifth batsman to complete 11,000 runs. His feat of completing the milestone in 286 innings is the second fastest in ODIs, next only to Tendulkar, who took 276 innings.
Sourav Ganguly achieved the distinction in 288 innings, followed by Pakistan’s Inzamam-ul-Haq (324) and Jayasuriya (354).
When his score reached 97, Ponting became the first batsman to aggregate 4,000 runs in the annual triangular series in Australia. He now has an aggregate of 4,027 in 108 matches at an average of 41.09.