Punter has no answer to Ishant Sharma's `unusual angles'

Mohali, Oct.22 (ANI): Australian captain Ricky "Punter" Ponting, it seems, has no answer to Indian pacer Ishant Sharma's "unusual angles".

Since his outstanding 123 on the first day of the first Test in Bangalore, Ponting has had no answer to Sharma's nippy pace.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Sharma has defeated Ponting three times in as many attempts, meaning he has now taken the scalp of perhaps the world's premier batsman five times in as many Tests.

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Ponting says in addition to being a fine pace bowler, Sharma is capable of posing questions that very few international pacers can conjure.

In Mohali, Ponting was beaten in the first innings by an inswinger that had him lbw on the back foot, and in the second he was bowled between bat and pad by an unplayable off-cutter that uprooted his off stump.

"This game, the ball he got me with in the second innings is going to get me out 95 times out of 100, I think," Ponting said.

"There's not much I can do about that and the ball in the first innings was fairly similar. He's using the swinging ball very well. He's unusual with the angles he creates as well as a fast bowler. There's not many quicks that you face around the world that swing the ball back into the right-handed batsman, so he's posing challenges for us there, and that's three innings in a row he's got me out," he added.

"All our batsmen just need to think about ways that we can make it more difficult for them, and that's all you can do as a batsman sometimes," he said.

"My challenge over the next few days is to look at some of the vision - I know the ways he's trying to get me out but I've got to find a way to combat them," he said. (ANI)