Gareth Batty: Only Ricky Ponting could score 169 and still feel downbeat

We have two Friends Life t20 matches this week, against Middlesex and Kent, and we know that two wins should be enough to take us into the quarter-finals.

The meeting with Kent at The Kia Oval on Friday will also be Ricky Ponting’s last game for Surrey, as he completes his two-month stint with us.

He is probably one of the last of the Australian generation of players for whom winning was everything. He’ll retire from all forms of cricket in October and his last first-class innings was that unbeaten 169 that secured us a draw against Nottinghamshire at The Kia Oval.

Many players would have been happy to have done what Ricky did in his final innings, regardless of the result of the game. But he still came into the changing room after the game pretty downbeat that we never got an opportunity to win.

He genuinely meant it, too. In my opinion, he’s the best Australian batsman of his generation, one of the top two or three in the world at that time, yet still his sole focus was: “We need to win a game of cricket. That’s the only thing that matters.”

When you see that will to win from a player, it’s phenomenal.

It was the final first-class game for someone who has played and achieved so much at the highest level but still his drive and desire remains second to none.

Let’s call it an old-school Australian mentality. I’m not saying they don’t have the same desire to win now but it’s different. When you look back to those great Australia teams, perhaps a part of their secret was the fact that each player drove the others to greater heights because of the ridiculous desire to win that they all shared.

Even though he has already announced his retirement, he is still first to the ground and last to leave. He is the first into the nets and the last out; he just loves the game. He will help anybody for as long as required and that will never be an imposition for him.

I’m a firm believer that winning becomes a habit, regardless of the format, so let’s hope we can send Ricky out on a high this week.

Surrey play their last home group game in this year’s FLt20 against Kent at the Kia Oval this Friday, starting at 6.30pm. Limited tickets are still available at kiaoval.com