Alongside Steve Smith, Whole Bowling Department Has Been Outstanding - Ricky Ponting

Though Steve Smith was the stealer of headlines for his fantastic efforts with the bat, the bowling department of Australia has performed brilliantly as well. Highlighting the same, the key member in Australian setup Ricky Ponting hails whole bowling department, who did the job for their country in a prestigious series.

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England played brilliantly on day three and need 203 runs to win with seven wickets in hand. It was Joe Denly and Joe Root’s 126-run partnership which has put England on a dominating position in the match. However, the match was turned with the wicket of Roy and Denly on Day 5 of the match.

Pat Cummins rattled the stumps of Roy while the extra bounce from Nathan Lyon saw Joe Denly walking back to the hut. Then followed the wickets of Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow, which turned things in favour of Australia.

Bowlers were relentless – Ricky Ponting

Jos Buttler and Craig Overton tried to save the game but a peach of a delivery from Hazlewood saw Buttle walking back and the rest were cleared with ease by the bowling department of Australia.

Speaking of the same, Ricky Ponting showers words of praise on the bowlers. He quoted that Steve Smith made a massive impact on the game but, believes that the bowling department must get their due credits like it was for Steve Smith.

“I think they (Australia) should have had a bigger lead, not just on the back of Steve Smith,” Ponting, one of the best batsmen of his generation, told Sky Sports. Everyone is talking about what impact he has had, but the whole bowling department has been absolutely outstanding. Look at the difference in the bowling attacks in this game.”

“(Mitchell) Starc, (Pat) Cummins, (Josh) Hazlewood and (Nathan) Lyon, match that up with the England attack. There were more holes in that England attack than the Australia one. They were relentless in everything they did,” he added.