Ricky Ponting the match, Ponting's batting average peaked at 59.99. The Third Test played at the WACA Ground saw another win to Australia by 206 runs to reclaim the Ashes; Ponting made 2 and 75. The 15 months they had been in English hands was the shortest period either nation had held the urn. Further wins in Melbourne and Sydney, made Ponting's team the second team (after Warwick Armstrong's Australian team in 1920–21) to win an Ashes series 5–0, and that against what had been thought to be a formidable team, the second strongest cricketing team in the world. Ponting was awarded
Ricky Ponting the score at 4–144—joined Steve Waugh in a 281 partnership. After Waugh survived one of Ambrose's "more threatening spells", he scored 199 and Ponting 104. He "batted with maturity and even temperament associated with the champions of the game", according to Waugh. Australia collapsed in their second innings to be bowled out for 146, with Ponting scoring 22. Left with a record run-chase in Barbados, the West Indies won by a single wicket, thanks to an unbeaten Brian Lara century. Australia had to win the Fourth and final Test in Antigua to retain the series, after going down 2–1. Ponting