Ponting praises Hopes for fine performance against Kiwis

Sydney, Feb.12 (ANI): James Hopes might not have given any stupendous performance in recent Chappel-Hadlee One-day series against New Zealand, but his simple and straight forward approach to the game, has captain Ricky Ponting showering all praise on the all-rounder.

Ponting praised Hopes particularly for his match winning performance against New Zealand in the Chappell-Hadlee series-levelling win on Tuesday in Adelaide.

Hopes took two wickets for 37 runs from his ten overs.

"His bowling, in particular in the last four or five games for us, has been almost extraordinary. He goes for his 30 to 35 runs a game and, more importantly, in the last couple of games he's chipped in with some vital wickets for us as well," Ponting said.

Ponting termed Hopes a 'dependable' cricketer.

"He's very dependable. Pretty much since he came into our side, probably two years ago now, he's just hardly had a bad game," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Ponting, as saying.

Commenting on Mike Hussey's brilliant knock in the last game against the Kiwis, Ponting said he was going through a lean patch in his career, but his last innings against the Black-Caps ensured that it is over now.

"Mike's a pretty harsh judge on himself. He's probably felt that he's been out of sorts for a long time, but deep down I think everyone that's watched him play and train knows that he's probably never really been out of touch," Ponting said. (ANI)