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| December 10, 2006 | Sunday | Ziqa'ad 18, 1427 |
Ponting’s dropped catch to haunt Giles for ‘20 years’
LONDON, Dec 9: England left-arm spinner Ashley Giles believes he will be haunted for the next 20 years by memories of the dropped catch which changed the course of the second Ashes Test against Australia.
Giles dropped Australia captain Ricky Ponting on 35 when Australia were struggling in their first innings in reply to England's 551 for six declared. Ponting went on to score 142 and Australia won the Test on a sensational final day.
In the first installment of his tour diary published in The Independent on Saturday, Giles said a spectator at the Adelaide Oval shouted to him that he had just dropped the Ashes.
“And I kept being reminded for the rest of the day, 'Well done Giles, you're on 50 now mate. Well played',” he said.
“Then it went to 80 and eventually 100: 'Well done Gilo, you've got your hundred now'.”
Giles said he had read newspapers reports saying it had been a simple chance.
“It wasn't a simple chance,” he said. “It was just one of those moments when, before you know it, the ball is on you and it hits the turf.
“You can't bring it back -- it's gone. I will just spend the next 20 years worrying about it.”
Australia leg spinner Shane Warne, a key figure on the final day with four for 49 as England collapsed to 129 in their second innings, used his weekly column in The Times for some veiled criticism of the England management.
Warne said he felt England captain Andrew Flintoff had been unfairly criticised after his team lost their second Test in a row.
“It was the right choice to make him captain and I'm not sure if he's getting the side he wanted,” Warne said. “As a captain, you should get the players you want in the XI.
“If you're looking around the field at five pm and you're not going to bowl a guy then he shouldn't be in your side.”
PANESAR EAGER: Another England left-arm spinner Monty Panesar, who was omitted from the first two Tests in favour of Giles, said he was eager to play in the third Test starting in Perth on Thursday.
“I guess if I do get a chance at Perth, it's going to be a test of my skill as a spinner,” Panesar said in his tour diary on the cricinfo website. “I really am itching to be put in these sorts of situations.
Panesar also praised Warne's bowling in Adelaide, which he called a master class in spin bowling.—Reuters
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