Sydney, Jan 4: Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting, whose place in the side was being questioned before the start of the series against India, scored a superb 134 at the SCG in the second Test. Ponting’s last ton had come in early 2010, the three-figure mark eluding him for 33 Test innings.

After stumps today, Ponting spoke to Tom Moody about his batting in a television interview.

Excerpts:

On scoring his fortieth century

It’s been a nice feeling. [...] I almost didn’t get there. I would have been a couple of yards short of the crease had the ball hit the stumps. It’s been an unbelievable day. You have seen some amazing batting today; the captain was magnificent. That’s the best I have ever seen him play in any game that I have played with him and [he’s] got the team to a very strong position in this game. To get through a day of Test cricket scoring 366 runs is pretty amazing day for us.

On his preparations going into the series

The last couple of months I had to almost rebuild my technique. I was getting myself into pretty ordinary positions there when the bowler was releasing the ball and once you start doing that it can be pretty hard to get out of them. So I started rebuilding things from base up, really, and started getting my balance going […] and my head going in the right direction. These are the things I have been working hard on in the last few months and it’s just nice to see some of those things starting to pay off for me.

On whether anyone in particular had helped through the process

Justin Langer has been terrific for me right through the whole thing. It’s a tough job, being a batting coach of the national team, especially trying to coach someone like me who has been around for that long. That is probably a reason why I stayed in the game, just to have another guy there that’s played so much cricket with me [and who] understands my game and my technique really well. It’s been a pleasure to work with him. His work ethic and my work ethic [match] [and we’ve tried] to get things back on track. I’ve got to thank him and all the coaches and I guess the selectors as well. They could have left me out a couple of months ago but they stuck with me and I feel I can repay them in time.

On whether he has a few more centuries left in him

I would like to think so. Now that I have got the monkey off my back with this one, I think there are a few more around the corner. This morning I felt a bit more at ease at the crease, a better balance that probably wasn’t [there] last night and started to feel that rhythm and temper come back in my batting again [...].