London, June 12 (IANS) Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting heaped praise on South Africa’s formidable pace duo of Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen for dismantling Australia’s batting line-up on the opening day of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final at Lord’s.

The two in-form quicks combined to take eight wickets against Australia in the Ultimate Test on Wednesday, with Rabada particularly impressive, collecting his 17th five-wicket haul in Tests to once again put his name on the famous Honours Board at the iconic London ground.

Ponting was impressed with Rabada and Jansen’s efforts and now believes the pair is right up there in terms of opening bowling combinations in world cricket.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt about that,” Ponting told ICC Digital before Australia’s fightback when asked whether Rabada and Jansen were the most formidable duo in the world. I think that’s sort of been building up over the last couple of years. They contrast each other really well with the left-arm and right-arm.

“Marco is obviously getting a bit steeper bounce than what Rabada gets. When you’re talking about bowling partnerships or bowling combinations, you need guys who complement each other well.

“It’s no good having two guys that are exactly the same because then it feels like you’ve got the same stuff coming at you from both ends… those two have worked really well together now for a few years.”

It was the second consecutive match that Rabada had picked up a five-wicket haul in the first innings at Lord’s, with the right-armer having produced a similar performance on his last visit to the venue during South Africa’s Test against England in 2022.

Ponting compared Rabada’s latest exploits to what former teammate Glenn McGrath also managed throughout his career at the famous ground.

“Glenn McGrath was also exactly the same at Lord’s. McGrath loved bowling at Lord’s and loved being able to use the slope both ways from either end of the ground, which is something that is probably not talked about as much as it should be. These big games are all about your big-name players. Your star players have to stand up in these games. Having been through a bit of off-field stuff in the last few months as well, I’m sure that now that he’s back out on the international stage, would have wanted to stand up and be the man for his team and lead from the front. And that’s what quality leaders do,” he said.

While Ponting understands that Australia’s batting lineup will be disappointed with their lacklustre performance on the opening day of the one-off Test, he shared a piece of advice for them to carry into the rest of the match.

“The important thing for the Aussie batters is that they now know that they’re probably going to get the best of the batting conditions in their second innings, so they have to make the most of those,” Ponting added.

South Africa were also in precarious condition after reeling at 43/4 at stumps on the first day.

–IANS

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