The quarterfinal clash between Australia and India, on Thursday, is not only about who stays in the hunt for the title but also about two of game’s modern day greats Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting squaring off in a World Cup game for what appears to be one last time.

The two ageing warriors would like to stamp their superiority and propel their side to the last four stage on March 24 at Motera’s Sardar Patel Stadium.

Neither of the two is expected to be around in 2015 when the next edition is scheduled to be held Down Under.

In the previous meeting between the two sides in the World Cup, that took place in the summit clash of the 2003 edition in Johannesburg, Ponting came out trumps with his unbeaten century took the game away from India even before the Men In Blue came out to bat.

Ponting’s blistering 140 not out, in only 121 balls with a staggering eight sixes and 4 fours, had propelled Australia to an imposing 359 for two.

Chasing the huge Australian total, Tendulkar could score only 4 and despite Virender Sehwag’s run-a-ball 82, India fell well short of the target and Australia walked away with cricket’s most coveted prize for the second edition running.

On Thursday, in front of a vociferous 50,000-strong crowd, the Indian master has the chance to make ample amends for what happened eight years ago and also step into the record books as the first batsman to have scored 100 centuries combined in both forms of cricket – Tests and ODIs.

Tendulkar has had a very good tournament individually, with superbly crafted tons against England and South Africa at the league stage, though both efforts could not power India to victories, with the first match tied and the second ending in a narrow defeat.

Ponting, on the other hand, has had a horrendous run with the bat. In six matches, he has mustered a miserly 102 runs with 36 being his best effort at a poor average of 20.40, less than half his 358-match career average.

Ponting’s ODI average in India against the hosts is also an impressive 44.86 from 24 games, but the second and last of his two hundreds in this country was notched eight years ago in Bangalore.

The Tasmanian has looked a pale shadow of his domineering style and is under tremendous pressure to keep his captaincy though teammate Michael Hussey felt otherwise.

Hussey brushed aside reports in Australia that Ponting’s captaincy was at stake, at a media conference here today and said the entire team was backing the struggling skipper.

“No worries at all. He has been fantastic, best man for the job and has been for a long time. He’s certainly got the full support of all team members,” Hussey said.

Ponting has also been lambasted in the media for losing temper on the field of play and off it too, as well as for not walking after clearly edging behind the stumps while Tendulkar did the exact opposite a day later and was hailed for his sportsmanship.

“He’s been criticized over minor things. They have been blown out of proportions. He’s been playing well and just like a champion rises to the occasion at the right time, on Thursday we will see the best of Ricky Ponting,” Hussey said in his skipper’s defence.

In five duels against Australia in World Cups, Tendulkar’s best effort thus far has been a splendid innings of 90 in a league game at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium in 1996, and his average against them is a modest 28.20 spread over four World Cups.

Thursday’s match provides both these stalwarts, among the all-time great batsmen in the game, a last chance to impose their stature in head-to-head battles in the premier ODI tournament.

Ricky Ponting will not mind even if he is stripped of captaincy in the wake of Ashes debacle but his deputy Michael Clarke is not keen to replace his ‘fantastic leader’.

Ponting had on Wednesday said he was prepared to share the leadership with Clarke.

“At the end of the day, he’s our leader and has been for my whole career. I’m blessed that I get this opportunity when he’s not here to do that fill-in role, but Punter’s our leader and I’m more than happy to keep playing under him,” Clarke said.

As Ponting takes a break, Clarke will lead Australia in a One-day match against Scotland in Edinburgh and two Twenty20 matches and three One-dayers against England.

“To me, we don’t have to worry about that because Ricky’s our captain. I’m lucky with the relationship I’ve got with Punt. No doubt he’s our leader, but when he needs to have time off or misses a game, as vice-captain I get this chance.

“My goal is to try and get five wins, so when the skipper comes back we’re in good form for him,” Clarke was quoted as saying by Herald Sun.

Clarke said Ponting alone was not responsible for the Ashes defeat and criticism should not be directed towards just one person.

“The criticism of us as a team is probably fair enough, we didn’t get the result we wanted. It’s the whole team out there on the field and there was times we all didn’t perform individually and as a team as well as we’d like, so I think the criticism needs to go to the team.

“I know it’s not one person’s fault. Ricky’s been a fantastic leader throughout my whole career. He was inspirational at times during this Ashes series and he wanted to win as much as anybody,” Clarke said.

Amidst calls for his head after the recent Ashes loss, Australia skipper Ricky Ponting on Wednesday said he would not mind sharing the captaincy, with his deputy Michael Clarke being made in-charge of the shorter versions of the game.

“If that’s the way that I or others, outside of what I’m thinking, decide (is) the right way to go, there’s absolutely no reason why that couldn’t happen,” Ponting told reporters at the Sydney International Airport.

Ponting is the only second Australian captain after Billy Murdoch to twice lose the Ashes in England. The team also slipped to fourth place for the first time on the ICC Test rankings, having lost three of their past five series.

Ponting himself was elevated to one-day captaincy in 2002 and he shared the leadership with Steve Waugh until the latter retired from Test cricket in 2004.

“It has happened in the past with Australian teams. It is happening with other teams around the world right at the moment.

“Paul Collingwood is captain of the England Twenty20 team and Andrew Strauss is captain of the one-day and Test cricket teams. Those things are things that need to be thought long and hard about, but if it means that I’m going to be better off for Test matches and bigger series when they come around…” he said.

The 28-year-old Clarke has captained Australia in 11 ODIs and two Twenty20 internationals.

His career has hit a low with the second Ashes defeat on English soil but Australian skipper Ricky Ponting remained defiant and hinted at coming back for the 2013 series to make amends for the twin debacles. Ponting became only the second Australian captain to lose twice in England – 2005 and this year – since Billy Murdoch, who lost in 1884 and 1890. Ponting, who will be 38 by the 2013 series, wants to use the defeats as inspirations.

“Yep, it certainly does (make me want to return),” Ponting said after the 197-run defeat in the fifth Test at The Oval here. “We’ll see how I’m going in four years. Hopefully there will be another chance to play another Ashes series back in Australia. But it would be nice, with everything I’ve done in my career and the games I’ve played, to have some good memories from this ground (the Oval). I might have to come back next time and find some,” he added.

The right-hander, who is Australia’s leading Test run-getter, will take a one-week break from international cricket before returning in the later half of the seven-match ODI series against England later this month. Ponting said he was preparing to answer some tough questions on his return home.

“I’ll be answering some questions (when I get home). You always do when you lose a game or a series like this, it’s part of the job, what leaders are expected to do,” he said. “But I’ve never doubted myself in anything I’ve ever done when I’ve had the baggy green cap on. I always get out there and accept challenges the best that I can,” he added.

Ponting refused to blame anyone for the defeat. “Ultimately it’s my responsibility to get the best out of the guys and to win the series. I felt I ticked most of those boxes, other than making a few more runs myself,” he said. Ponting said the Australian team is still rebuilding after retirements by greats like Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath.

Heckled by English fans almost the entire series, Ponting said he was happy to get some applause at the Oval. “Freddie (Flintoff) said when I went out, he thought I’d hired a PR company to get a few supporters on my side. It was nice to get an ovation.”

England - The Ashes 2009

England regained the Ashes with a 197-run win over Australia in the fifth and final Test at the Oval on Sunday. 

Victory, achieved with more than a day to spare, saw England take the five-match series 2-1.

Australia, set what would have been a record fourth innings victory total of 546, were bowled out for 348 with Michael Hussey last man out for 121, when he was caught close in by Alastair Cook off spinner Graeme Swann.

“It’s a special moment. It hasn’t sunk in yet. We had to dig in and fight,” said England skipper Andrew Strauss.

“When we were bad in the series, we were very bad but when we were good we were very good.”

Australia captain Ricky Ponting said: “We gave it all we could, but it wasn’t enough. Full credit to England, they won the crucial moments and deserved to win the series.

“I think this series has shown that Test cricket is alive and well around the world.”

From 327 for five, the end came swiftly with four wickets going down for 16 runs in 32 balls, with fast bowler Stephen Harmison taking three for seven in 13 himself.

It was a remarkable turnaround for England, who’d lost the fourth Test by an innings and 80 runs at Headingley, and had only clung on for a draw in the series opener at Cardiff by a single wicket.

Australia had been making steady progress at 217 for two before Ponting was run out by Andrew Flintoff’s direct hit in the all-rounder’s last match before his Test retirement.

Five balls later Michael Clarke was also run out for nought, before England’s progress was checked by a sixth-wicket stand of 91 between Hussey and Brad Haddin.

But just when England fans were starting to fret again, Haddin, on 34, went down the pitch to Swann, who took four for 120 in 40.2 overs, and hoisted a mistimed drive to Strauss at mid-wicket.

And 327 for six became 327 for seven when Australia lost another two wickets in quick succession.

Mitchell Johnson went for a seven-ball nought, brilliantly caught by diving second slip Paul Collingwood off his Durham team-mate Harmison.

Peter Siddle then got a leading edge off Harmison and Flintoff held a simple catch at mid-off.

Harmison made it two wickets in two balls when Stuart Clark was snapped up at short leg by Cook.

Ben Hilfenhaus survived the hat-trick but the end was nigh.

England had taken the new ball after tea with Australia 278 for five.

But Hussey’s two off Stuart Broad saw him to a first Test century in 29 innings off 219 balls with 11 boundaries.

Flintoff and Strauss had stunned Australia with two run-outs, the first they’d suffered this series, before tea to dismiss Ponting and Clarke.

Ponting and Hussey had frustrated England with a third-wicket stand of 127 that raised hopes of an improbable victory.

But Flintoff struck in unlikely fashion.

Hussey called Ponting for a single off Harmison but Flintoff, running round from mid-on, threw down the stumps at the striker’s end and Ponting was short of his ground by a foot.

Ponting, in what could be his final Ashes Test in England, had to go for 66, having stroked 10 stylish fours in his 103-ball stay after he and left-hander Hussey had revived Australia from the depths of 90 for two.

Vice-captain Clarke fell in even more extraordinary fashion.

Australia’s leading batsman this series, clipped a ball from Swann that deflected off the boot of Alastair Cook at short leg to leg-slip Strauss, who hit the stumps with a sharp under-arm throw.

This was a much tighter call for third umpire Peter Hartley but he eventually ruled the bail was in the air with Clarke’s bat still to be grounded.

Clarke was out for nought and Australia, who’d lost two wickets for three runs in six balls, were now 220 for four.

And they could have been five down had not Collingwood dropped Hussey, on 55, off Swann.

But Australia were 236 for five when Marcus North, trying to sweep Swann, was smartly stumped by wicket-keeper Matt Prior.

Australia resumed Sunday on 80 without loss.

Left-hander Simon Katich had only added one to his overnight 42 when, padding up, he was plumb lbw to Swann.

Three balls later, fellow opener Shane Watson (40) was lbw to man-of-the-match Stuart Broad.

England consolidated Saturday the advantage gained from dismissing Australia for just 160, with Broad taking five for 37, in a second innings 373 for nine declared that featured a debut century from Jonathan Trott, who made 119.

Strauss’s declaration left the visitors needing to break the record for a successful Test fourth innings run-chase, of 418 for seven set by West Indies against Australia in Antigua in 2002/03, to win this match.

England victory’s left Ponting with the unwanted record of becoming only the second Australia captain, since Billy Murdoch in 1890, to be in charge of two losing Ashes tours of England.

And it also knocked Australia off top spot in the Test rankings.

Captain Ricky Ponting, vice captain Michael Clarke and six other members of the Australia team at risk of losing the Ashes were named on Saturday in the country’s 15-man Champions Trophy limited-overs squad.

Wicketkeeper Brad Haddin, Michael Hussey, all-rounder Shane Watson and bowlers Ben Hilfenhaus, Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle were also included in the squad for the Champions Trophy in South Africa from September 22-Oct. 5.

Australia, as defending champions, will play its first match in Group A against West Indies on September 26. It plays India on September 28 and Pakistan on September 30 to complete the first round.

The one-day event will be Australia’s next assignment after the current tour of England. In the deciding test, Australia trails by 172 runs on first innings, with England to resume its second innings Saturday at 58-3.

AUSTRALIA SQUAD: Ricky Ponting (captain), Michael Clarke (vice-captain), Nathan Bracken, Callum Ferguson, Brad Haddin, Nathan Hauritz, Ben Hilfenhaus, James Hopes, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Peter Siddle, Adam Voges, Shane Watson, Cameron White.

England’s Andrew Flintoff may be about to call time on his Test career but retirement is not on Ricky Ponting’s agenda. 

This week’s fifth and final Ashes Test, which starts at the Oval on Thursday will Flintoff, has said, be the last of the injury-prone all-rounder’s career.

But Australia captain Ponting, whose side need only a draw in south London to retain the Ashes with the series all square at 1-1, is not thinking about departing the Test scene just yet.

At the age of 34, this could be Ponting’s final Test tour of England and a series win would go some way to making up for the disappointment of Australia’s 2-1 Ashes reverse on English soil in 2005.

But for Ponting the thrill of leading an Australia side without such star names as the retired quintet of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer still remains fresh.

“I’ve never put a time-frame on when I am thinking about finishing my international career,” Ponting, Australia’s all-time leading run scorer and a veteran of 135 Tests, said at the Oval on Wednesday.

“I’ve really enjoyed the last 12 to 18 months working with a fresher bunch of guys,” the Tasmanian added.

“It’s been one of the big challenges of my career and we’ve had some good successes along the way,” explained Ponting, who led Australia to a series win in South Africa this year.

“I hope that continues this week and I hope I don’t have to worry about it (retirement) for a while.”

England famously celebrated their Ashes triumph four years ago with an open-topped bus parade through the streets of London.

But whatever the outcome of the fifth Test, Australia will be boarding a train the day after the scheduled finish for a One-Day International against Scotland in Edinburgh.

“Is it an open-topped train?” joked Ponting. “It’s an incredibly busy international schedule but if we win, I’m sure we’ll celebrate accordingly.”

Ponting has become something of a pantomime villain figure for many England fans at grounds during this series and the booing got so bad that spectators were asked, in the Headingley programme, by England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), chairman Giles Clarke to stop jeering him.

“If I get a clap, I’ll be happy,” said Ponting.

“Last week at Canterbury (in Australia’s final warm-up match) was terrific. I got clapped on the ground and I got clapped off, but that might have been because I only made 45 I got clapped off.

“I’ve enjoyed every moment of this series. It’s been great Test match cricket and it’s been great to be part of an Ashes series like this. I think it just goes to show that Test cricket is alive and well, and we are all really enjoying these bigger series we are playing in.

“Regardless of what happens this week, I will have enjoyed the series to tell the truth.”

Australia’s collapse in the third Ashes Test has raised the chilling prospect that Ricky Ponting could become just the second Australian captain to lose two Ashes series in England, press said on Saturday.

Australia’s batsmen succumbed to the England swing duo of James Anderson and Graham Onions on Friday, losing seven wickets in the pre-lunch session to leave them precariously placed after the second day of the Edgbaston Test.

In reply England were 116 for two at close of play, a deficit of 147 runs after Australia had been bowled out for 263 from an overnight 126 for one.

Ponting showed no joy when he passed Allan Border to become his nation’s highest run scorer, The Australian said.

“It is an extraordinary feat. Allan Border was 38 and had played 156 Tests when he retired with a then world record 11,174 and an average of 50. Ponting, 34, has passed it in 134 Tests with an average of 56,” it said.

Ponting’s leadership was never needed as much as it is now, the newspaper said, with Australia “spooked” again by the swinging ball.

“Ricky Ponting stands proudly amongst the very finest players the game has produced but there is one telling record he is desperate to avoid,” The Australian’s Malcolm Conn said.

“Unless his team can show more than it has managed in the past one-and-a-half Tests, Ponting is in danger of becoming just the second captain of Australia to be in charge of two Ashes series defeats in England.

“The only other is Australia’s first touring captain, Billy Murdoch, well over a century ago.”

The Daily Telegraph’s Ben Dorries said Australia’s bid to claw their way back into Ashes contention from 1-0 down was in trouble as the 2005 (series) reverse swing Ashes nightmare returned.

“In scenes reminiscent of how Simon Jones got the old ball to swing around corners in 2005, Onions and Anderson wobbled the ball everywhere and both took their best figures against Australia,” he said.

Former Test spinner Greg Matthews said Australia’s batting display had been disappointing.

“They lost 7/77 in the first session. The last two pairs put on 60 runs when the ball was still swinging, so what’s going on there?” Matthews said on SBS TV.

Ponting tended to be denied the recognition he deserved for his batting achievements, The Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Roebuck said.

“The problem is simple. Whatever he does, he will remain the second-best number three Australia has produced,” the columnist wrote.

“Of course, it is absurd to put him or anyone else alongside Don Bradman, but that has been his fate. As a result, he tends to be denied some of the acclaim he deserves.”

Veteran ABC radio commentator Jim Maxwell said while Anderson and Onions swung the ball deceptively, in contrast Australia struggled to swing the ageing ball in England’s first innings.

Australian skipper Ricky Ponting feels England’s star batsman Kevin Pietersen’s absence will add more pressure on the Lord’s Test hero Andrew Flintoff.

Ponting believes his team had Pietersen’s measure during the first two Tests of the ongoing Ashes series but wonders how England will cope without their batting star now he has been ruled out of the series following Achilles tendon surgery.

“If you look at the way we’ve bowled to him and the way he’s played, he’s been one of the England batsmen we’ve been able to put the most pressure on,” Ponting was quoted as saying in Daily Telegraph. “Ben Hilfenhaus, in particular, has bowled beautifully to him.”

“But he is a massive loss. He’s such an X-factor in their side, the way he can score quickly and the ability he has to put the bowlers on the backfoot by putting extra pressure on them.

“I think Pietersen does leave a pretty big hole in their batting. For us, it will be a real positive. It probably puts a bit more pressure back on Flintoff to perform. He has to stand up big time now,” he said.

Ponting also wonders how the inconsistent Ian Bell will feel trying to fill Pietersen’s enormous shoes.

“Now England have a much more sound, technically correct, but scratchy player like Bell, if we happen to get him in at the right time he’s a pretty nervous sort of bloke as well,” Ponting said.

Australian skipper Ricky Ponting is determined not to be fooled by Edgbaston’s ‘jelly’ pitch report that similarly had ruined their Ashes dreams four years ago and said he would better wait and watch this time.

In 2005 Ashes Tests, Ponting was flayed for bowling first without injured pacer Glenn McGrath after concerns that heavy rain would make the pitch a minefield.

Four years down the lane, Ponting finds himself in a similar situation with Edgbaston’s groundsman Steve Rouse claiming that heavy rain has delayed the preparation of the pitch for the third Test and the wicket is a bit like a jelly.

But the Australian skipper said this time he will assess the pitch early next week before forming any notion.

“That’s what we got told last time. That’s the reason we ended up bowling first in 2005,” Ponting was quoted as saying in the Herald Sun.

“We were told exactly the same thing for the week leading up. There had been a cyclone and a tornado that had gone through Birmingham and wicket preparation was miles behind.

“It was overcast on that day so we won the toss and bowled. And the thing (the ball) didn’t move off the straight for the whole day.

“I’m not sure I’ll be falling for that one this time around. We’ll wait and see,” added the Australian skipper.

Ponting is currently on a three-day tour match against Northampton county team and would travel to Birmingham with the side tomorrow night after the match.

“We’ll have a look first thing Monday,” Ponting said of the pitch.

“It will be a good opportunity to have a look at the wicket and see how far advanced the preparation is and then hopefully, we’ll be able to make a more accurate forecast once we’re there.

“Last time around we probably got a bit carried away with what we heard and not going so much on the cold, hard facts of what we saw.

“The wicket looked OK there last time but with the overhead conditions, that’s what most captains here usually look at on the day. I’ve probably got a bit more experience with that this time around,” he added.