London, June 12 (ANS) Former captain Ricky Ponting has heaped praise on Beau Webster, who came to the rescue in Australia’s first innings of the World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord’s, saying the allrounder “looked completely ready” as the scorecard looked “a whole lot different” with his knock of 70.

Webster, who made his Test debut in a Border-Garvaskar Trophy deciding Test in Sydney against India at the start of this year, took command of the first innings with a gutsy 72 off 92 balls, top scoring for Australia and ensuring his side posted a competitive total of 212 runs against world-class Proteas bowling.

His performance has earned him high-profile praise from Ponting. “You take those 70 odd runs out, that scorecard looks a whole lot different. I think that says a lot about how comfortable he is in his own game right now and even the comfort he has of being in the Australian middle order,” Ponting told ICC Digital after Australia’s first innings.

“The thing I liked about that today was, although Australia were in a little bit of trouble, wickets were falling… (Webster) was able to go out there and maintain his own natural style of play and play the way that he wanted to play and try and be aggressive and try and put some pressure back on the South African bowlers,” he said.

Besides Webster, ex-skipper Steve Smith also contributed with a hard-fought 66 in just under three hours at the crease. Keeper Alex Carey was the next highest scorer with 23 runs, as South Africa, led by Kagiso Rabada’s 5/51, cleaned up the tail to bundle the defending champions out for 212.

“The other thing (is that) although the wicket was doing something and we know the Dukes ball will do something early June in the UK, it just goes to show that if you do get in and get set like Smith and and Beau did that regardless of the conditions you can still make some big scores,” Ponting continued.

However, Australia pacers also made early inroads towards the end of Day 1. Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Cummins all struck with the ball as South Africa closed the day at 43/4.

–IANS

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