The Ponting Pull Shot

v. Canada, c: Davison b: Osinde 7(15)

v. Kenya, lbw b: C Obuya 36(54)

v. New Zealand, st: McCullum b: Southee 12(28)

v. Zimbabwe, run out (Mpofu) 28(36)

v. South Africa, c: Amla b: Peterson 55(84)

v. India, st: Dhoni b: Harbhajan 57(85)

v. Sri Lanka, c: Silva b: Perera 10(16)

v. England, c: Kieswetter b: Broad 15(27)

v. England, c: Strauss b: Anderson 92(93)

v. England, st: Kieswetter b: Swann 3(16)

v. England, c: Kieswetter b: Broad 13(21)

v. England, c: Broad b: Wright 21(23)

v. Ireland, c: White b: Stirling 33(54)

Innings: 13, Runs: 382, Average: 29.38, Strike Rate: 69.20, 100s/50s: 0/3.

The weak pull shot that ballooned to short square leg in the dying moments of Australia's successful and largely unsurprising run-chase against Canada this evening was John Davison's last notable statistical contribution to international cricket. It also convinced me that we've probably seen Ricky Ponting's last great innings for Australia. And it wasn't this one.

His ODI batting figures over the last 12 months look more suited to a place in the Canadian upper-middle order than the Australian one and the modes of dismissal, worryingly, show no discernable trends whatsoever - the classic sign of a batsman whose skill, timing, reflexes, appetite, patience and confidence are in chronic and irreversible decline.

I still feel it's not so much bowlers getting him out than him getting himself out. Today, he looked rushed, his feet didn't stay planted and then swivel back, his head was at an angle, his wrists were stiff, his bat speed was negligible. It's really ironic that the pull let him down today. I thought back to the countless times very, very fast bowlers had shoulder high deliveries plucked from off-stump and deposited at the square leg boundary in the space of a couple of seconds. A couple of seconds which saw that swift, co-ordinated, dominant, masterful, sexy movement being completed so fluently that any words other than "The Ponting Pull Shot" would  hardly do it justice.

I know he's not done yet, but there was something in the half an hour that he spent at the wicket today that told me that this is probably it. I will watch his last innings, of course. I already fear, however, that I won't remember it.

But what I will remember forever - even more than Mark Waugh's square drive, Azhar's flick through mid-wicket, Andy Flower's reverse sweep, Jayasuriya's slash over point, Cronje's slog-sweep, anything by Lara at his peak and (feel free to call this sacrilege) Sachin's on-drive (which, for me, only goes for four because mid-on isn't straighter) - will be Ponting's pull shot.

And I will imagine a tall opposition fast bowler bowl short ball after short ball over Ponting's head until he strays three inches in line with his next delivery. And I will imagine the image of that perfect motion, the crack of the leather and how the camera shot immediately following the swivel will be of the ball stationary on the boundary rope. And I will imagine Bill Lawry's excitable voice describe the shot that defined our generation with two simple words: "Ponting...four!"