Quick-learning Green has world at his feet: Ponting

A maiden century is within Cameron Green's (extensive) reach after coming close twice in his past two innings, says Ricky Ponting, who believes the towering allrounder is slowly discovering how much of a nightmare he can be for opposition bowlers.

Green has emerged from a slow start to his first Ashes campaign with a second straight knock of 74, playing second fiddle to Travis Head (101 off 113 balls) to help Australia claw their way back into the fifth Vodafone Ashes Test at Blundstone Arena.

The 22-year-old was rueful to be out hooking within reach of a maiden century but, from the position of 3-12 that Australia had slumped to during a frenetic opening hour, his 121-run fifth-wicket stand with Head could well be a match-defining one.

As darkness fell in Hobart and the floodlights reached full beam, Green grew in confidence against an England attack operating without first-session force Ollie Robinson before falling into Mark Wood’s short-ball trap.

"He just had England exactly where he wanted them today," Ponting told cricket.com.au. "Flat (pitch), a bowler down, a 50-over old ball, lights on and the ball skidding on beautifully, no quality spinner. It was all there waiting for him today, but it's not going to be far away.

"If he takes that same mental approach into every innings going forward, regardless of if he's got runs in the game before or not (he'll perform well).

"That's the big challenge for him. It doesn't matter what happened last week or two Test matches before, it's all about getting the mindset right for the next challenge that you have.

"That's what he'll learn. It takes a lot of people a long time to learn that but he seems to be learning pretty quickly."

Green's bowling this summer has seen him become a legitimate wicket-taking threat at Test level, removing Joe Root and Ben Stokes twice apiece to have nine victims at 15.44 with all but one of his scalps being top-order batters.

Yet his batting in the early stages of the series had underwhelmed for a man who averages more than 50 in the Sheffield Shield and who had shown flashes of his immense potential in his debut campaign against India last summer.

Against England this summer he was dismissed twice, for 0 and 2, in his first eight balls of the series and managed just 57 runs from his first five innings at an average of 14.25.

Ponting had suggested the towering right-hander could benefit from squaring his stance up to make his pre-delivery trigger movement more effective, while also encouraging him to look to score more off the back foot.

Although he squandered a maiden hundred on Friday, Green's willingness to take on the pacey Wood off the back foot was evident as he twice punched him imperiously twice through the covers.

And Ponting suggested he is realising how he can use his 199cm frame to his advantage.

"There was more of an intent to hit the ball and get off strike today than the really defensive (approach of) ‘making sure I get through my first 20 or 30 balls and not really look to score’," said Ponting.

"I said over the last couple of weeks that once we start seeing him play off front and back foot well, then he's going to be a real handful to bowl to and we saw that today.

"He hit a cover drive on the up off Stuart Broad which was a nearly a seven-metre length ball. You'd think seven metres is short, but he stood up on top of the bounce and punched it through the covers.

"The over before there was one from Mark Wood that he played off the back foot that was about a metre and a half shorter, but he stood up tall and punched it through the covers.

"The art of batting is minimising the margin of error for bowlers on length.

"And especially if you're that tall, you've got a better opportunity to do that.

"It just looked like he was there to get on with it a bit more and back himself a bit more and if he continues to learn and understand what that means, then he'll get better game after a game."

HCL Vantage Point: Ricky Ponting on Marnus Labuschagne's dismissal

"He was trying to do what he did earlier, where he used his feet, shimmied down, got outside the line and flicked him over midwicket.

"That's what he was trying to do but unfortunately when he went to move his feet he missed his spikes and hit the outside of his boot so stretched out a bit further than he wanted to and got into a position where it was impossible for him to hit the ball.

"He'll be embarrassed about getting out, having been there before – having to pick yourself up of the wicket to get off the ground is not a place you want to be.

"We saw Pat Cummins and Steve Smith having a bit of a laugh about it, I don't think Marnus will be having a laugh about it."

Referring to his dismissal against Jacques Kallis at Adelaide Oval in 2012 when Ponting fell over: "I haven't laughed about it yet, and I'm not going to laugh about it now either.

"I've been waiting all day to get stitched up in (Seven) comms about it. When it happened a few people looked at me waiting for me to acknowledge it; I didn't say anything but I've just been waiting for a replay to pop up at some stage.

"It hasn't yet. I'm not going to bring it up anymore.

"Trust me, the shot at your dignity when you get out in the first place, then when you've got to get up and walk off the field, it's not a fun place to be."

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