'I only looked at bottom 5% of ball,' says batting legend Ponting on his eagle-eyed vision

When a batter times every shot beautifully, the commentators often say they are watching the ball as big as a football. It is a metaphor for the batter's razor-sharp focus and impeccable reaction time.

Now hold that thought and picture this line legendary Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting said in the 'Straight Talk' podcast with Mark Bouris: "I only looked at the bottom 5% of the ball." Ponting was talking about an actual cricket ball, which has a circumference no more than 9 inches, and could fly past even a trained eye in a jiffy if the bowler happened to be a Shoaib Akhtar or Shaun Tait firing in at 100 mph.

Ponting recollected a study done by the Queensland University in Brisbane at the back end of his illustrious career that ended with over 27,000 international runs. Ponting said he and a few other Australian stars were tested to study "what made the really good international players better" than the rest.

"It was all about how the best players watched the ball, did they watch it longer or differently," Ponting told Bouris.

"We had these glasses that picked up every slight movement of your eyes when you were watching the ball. The big thing that showed up with me was that I only looked at the bottom 5% of the ball.

"So when the ball was coming down the wicket, my focus point was on the bottom 5%, which was different from what everyone else did."

Ponting explained that it meant he was able to pick up the length quicker than most other batters. "I was able to play pull shorts to balls that were fuller than the others."

"And when I thought about that, maybe it was because I was looking at the part of the ball that was actually hitting the wicket. If you are looking at the top of the ball, it's going to be longer before you can pick up where the ball's landing on the wicket."

It is no wonder Ponting is regarded as one of the all-time greats alongside Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara. The right-hander made 71 international hundreds and is widely regarded as the most successful captain of a men's national side with two World Cups and as many Champions Trophies.