New Delhi, Dec 11 (IANS) Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting, reacting to the verbal clash between Jofra Archer and Australian captain Steve Smith during the second Ashes Test, said the England pacer embarrassed himself by failing to deliver the pace and aggression when it was most needed earlier in the match.

Engaged in a fiery exchange on Day 4 of the day-night Test, when Archer fired down a searing short ball to Smith, which dispatched it to the boundary with an impressive pull shot. The next delivery was again short, and Smith attempted to lift it over the slip cordon, sparking a reaction from Archer, who directed a few verbal barbs at the Aussie skipper.

Archer was picked up on the stump mic, saying, “Likes to play shots when there’s not much on the scoreboard.” It lit a fuse under Smith who returned serve, the stump microphone picking up the exchange. “You bowl fast when there’s nothing going on champion,” Smith said.

Ponting, who was in the commentary box during the match, opined that Archer had “embarrassed himself” and the team.

“When I ‘championed’ him, I could actually hear what Steve Smith had said to him in the stump mic. Smithy said champion, and then that’s just what came out of my mouth, but it just got me going and got the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. There haven’t been many games that I’ve commentated that I wish I was back playing again. But I wish I was out there the other night as part of that, because that’s what you miss and that’s what it’s all about,” Ponting told SEN.

“But look, for Jofra, he just embarrassed himself, and he embarrassed his team the other night, that’s what I make of that. To bowl his fastest spell ever in Test cricket, when Australia’s chasing 60… it (the fast spell) has been there the whole time, it’s been up his sleeve, and England have needed him to do it, and he hasn’t been willing to do it.

“Day 3, when they needed him to do it, he rocks up with his pillow under his arm, and that was always going to be a bad day for England from that moment. As soon as anyone saw that it was going to be ‘Okay, there’s their mindset for the day.

“They’re just going to rock up and Australia’s going to fall over and we’ll bowl them out’. Well, that doesn’t happen against Australia, it doesn’t happen in Ashes cricket,” he added.

–IANS

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