Ricky Ponting Blasts England Star for 'Dopey' Moment in Ashes Defeat
Ricky Ponting slammed an England star in an on-air rant following the player's dismissal on the final day of the third Test.
Australia beat England by 82 runs in the third Test on Sunday to retain the Ashes.
Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon all took three wickets in the second innings to wrap up victory in Adelaide.
England showed some resistance in their second innings after posting just 286 in the first innings.
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Jamie Smith and Will Jacks gave the tourists some hope as they looked to chase an unlikely total.
Smith hit 60 off 83 balls, while Jacks scored 47 from 137 balls as they shared a solid partnership.
But their partnership came to an end when the England wicket-keeper slogged a shot into the air off the bowling of Starc.
Cummins made no mistake, catching Smith, with England left reeling at 285-7.
As the sequence unfolded, Ponting went off on Smith for his 'dopey' dismissal.
The Australia legend criticised the timing of the 25-year-old's wicket in a furious rant.
"Dopey, dopey, dopey. There's another one of those moments. Another one of those times where they don’t need it, they didn’t need to do that," Ponting began.
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He added: "The batting was looking easy for him. A new ball on this wicket, the best time in the game to bat and you just go and throw it away. Right off the toe end of the bat, straight up into the air, easy catch for Cummins. It was good. But not for long enough."
Ricky Ponting hits out at 'disappointing' England after Ashes defeat
England entered the Ashes series with a realistic chance of regaining the famous urn.
But a crushing two-day defeat in the opening Test in Perth put England on the back foot. The result followed another bruising defeat in Brisbane in the second Test.
And it was the same story in Adelaide as Australia retained the Ashes after just 11 days of cricket.
Speaking after England's latest defeat down under, Ponting hailed Australia and lamented England's 'disappointing' series.
"It doesn’t get any better. The only way it gets better for Australia is if they go 4-0 up next week and 5-0 up at the end. That is the only way it can get better," he said on Channel 7.
"This is the pinnacle of our sport. The reason that we want to play the game as kids growing up in the backyard is all about moments like this, it’s all about Ashes cricket.
"To think that we’re only 11 days into the series and Australia are now 3-0 up, they have been so dominant.
"There was a lot talked about in the build-up about how good England were, they’ve come in with their best team and best squad they’ve come with this century.
"Well, the series is done within 11 days - they’ve been very disappointing.
"I thought this would be a close series, I tipped Australia to win the series 3-2, but so far, they just haven’t turned up to play the brand of cricket that’s good enough to win an Ashes series."
Nasir Jabbar