Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting hit a century for his state side Tasmania to move one step closer to India's Sachin Tendulkar in the list of first-class centuries.
Ponting scored his 79th first-class hundred on Wednesday against New South Wales (NSW) in Sheffield Shield. Tendulkar, who is currently playing for Mumbai in Irani Cup against Rest of India, has 80 first-class hundreds.
Tendulkar will get a chance to score his 81st first-class ton over next four days. If he reaches there, it will be joint Indian record with Sunil Gavaskar. The Master Blaster is 104 runs short of completing 25,000 first-class runs.
Ponting, who remained unbeaten on 138 in Hobart on Wednesday, has so far scored 23,239 runs in 281 first-class matches. Tendulkar is currently with 24,896 runs from 302 games.
