Couldn't have asked for better ball: Ricky Ponting thanks Paul Adams

Ricky Ponting (IANS)

Sydney, April 1:  Ricky Ponting is among Australia's greatest ever batsmen across formats. Additionally, he also came to be known for being the face of Australia's uncompromising attitude of winning at all costs in the years that he led a team that lost only a handful of matches across formats.

Signs of this aspect of Ponting's character could be seen before he took over the captaincy from Steve Waugh and an example of that was Australia's 2002 Test against South Africa. Ponting on Wednesday gave his followers a recap of the moment of when he won the match and reached a second innings hundred with a six off South African spinner Paul Adams.

Ponting retweeted a post which showed the last ball of the Test and said: "I think this was as excited as I'd been on the field ... and I couldn't have asked for a better ball to hit for six. Thanks Paul."

Australia needed 331 to win and looked to be in good stead while the top three of Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden and Ponting added 201 runs. However, Australia suffered a middle-order collapse as Mark Waugh, Steve Waugh and Damien Martyn all fell within the space of 10 overs.

First innings centurion Adam Gilchrist played a typically aggressive cameo to counter the South Africans before Shane Warne stuck on with Ponting as the latter finished the job.