London, Aug 27 : Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has said that of the 2519 batsmen who have taken the crease in 131 years of Test cricket, Bradman stands alone and untouched.

"He dominated cricket for 20 years from his debut in 1928 to his retirement 60 years ago this month and if he had not lost eight years of his career to World War II his figures would no doubt be better still. At every Olympics plenty of records are broken. Bradman remains unassailable," he said.

Ponting doubted it was possible for a modern player to score 300 runs in a day, like Bradman did at Leeds in 1930.

"As a team we do try and score at least 300 runs a day in Test cricket," he said. "In honour of Bradman's legacy that's the least we can do."

Ponting rated the achievements of Don Bradman above those of the Olympic swimmers Michael Phelps and Mark Spitz and sprinter Usain Bolt, Cricinfo reported.

On the 100th anniversary of Bradman's birth, Ponting will deliver the Bradman Oration in Sydney and speak about his "ageless legacy".

Ponting said the performances of Phelps and Bolt in Beijing, and Spitz in Munich in 1972, were some of the greatest sporting achievements in history, but he does not believe the athletes match Bradman.

Bradman was born in the small New South Wales town of Cootamundra in 1908 and spent time in Bowral and Sydney before moving to Adelaide in the mid-1930s.

In 52 Tests he scored 6996 runs, finishing with a zero at The Oval in 1948 when four runs would have given him an average of 100.

ANI