Ricky Ponting signs off first-class career with century for Surrey against Nottinghamshire This is not quite the end for Ponting. He will play Twenty20 cricket for Surrey, in the new Caribbean Premier League and then finally for Mumbai Indians, in the Champions League until he packs it all up in October. But the art of a Ponting innings is one that needs the scope first-class cricket provides to be appreciated. Seeing him prance around in pyjamas is rather like seeing a Mozart opera reduced to a minute. Ponting is not the sort to do things half-heartedly. The conviction with which he commits to every shot is absolute. Even his leaves have a certain oomph to them. Ponting does not do diffidence. His subdued start on the third evening had been likened to the Rolling Stones" performance at Glastonbury. No one would say the same of the 128 runs he compiled on the final day. Just as at Old Trafford in 2005, Ponting salvaged a draw by being true to himself. The trademark pull shot was out in force. But it was a twinkle-toed shimmy down the wicket to Samit Patel's left-arm spin that brought up Ponting's hundred. The Oval has brought Ponting much angst - he twice lost the Ashes here - and his celebration may have hinted at a sense of catharsis. Having achieved his 82nd first-class hundred, Ponting's work was far from done: until deep into the afternoon, he wrestled with the grim reality that his dismissal would cost Surrey the match. As much as any shot he played, the abiding memory of Ponting's final innings will be his constant nursing of No 10 Jade Dernbach through their match-saving partnership. Deep into his 39th year, the intensity of Ponting's running - he moved past 150 with an all-run four - spoke of a man whose competitiveness is undiluted. It all meant that Nottinghamshire, who sensed victory after Surrey led by only six runs with half their wickets dismissed, ended the day with the farcical sight of their fastest bowler, Ajmal Shazhad, dabbling in legspin. In a career of so many Tests, Ponting's Surrey dalliance amounts to a fleeting curtain call. And yet, in his professionalism, selflessness and the sheer voraciousness of his run scoring, 493 Championship runs at 123 apiece, Ponting has added to his legacy, just as he did in topping the run-scoring in the Australian Sheffield Shield after his Test retirement last December. Modern sport leaves little time for reflection: Ponting, who played unsentimentally in the here and now, knows that better than anyone. Yet this was about much more than a drawn County Championship match. Ricky Ponting is the second finest batsman, after Sir Donald Bradman, Australia has ever produced. And here he was, for one last time, doing what he does best.