Ponting makes century in final first-class game

Saturday, 13 July 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

REUTERS: Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting made an unbeaten 169 in his final match for English county Surrey to ensure he ended his first-class career with a bang on Thursday.

It was an 82nd first-class hundred for the 38-year-old who will retire from all forms of cricket after playing in the Champions League in October. “A perfect, very fitting way for Ricky to finish his first class career, with a hundred,” former Australian team mate Glenn McGrath told the BBC. “He’s a class player and a class bloke. To see him mature as a cricketer was something I really enjoyed. I couldn’t be happier for him.” Ponting retired from test cricket last December and the one-day format in February 2012. He scored 13,378 runs in 168 tests; the second highest haul behind India’s Sachin Tendulkar in the long history of the game. The Tasmanian is the most successful test captain in history winning 48 of his 77 games as skipper. Ponting will next compete in the inaugural Caribbean Premier League with Antigua Hawksbills and then end his glittering career after featuring for the Mumbai Indians, his Indian Premier League franchise, in the Champions League.