has been lurching back and forward between strokeless defiance and headlong attack. In Mohali, he grafted almost three hours but scored from only every fifth ball he faced; in Bangalore, he played a sparkling cameo then chased a wide one. Returning home, he indulged his taste for pop philosophy by saying that he didn't 'feel the talk' about his place, and expressing the view that he was 'playing well inside myself'. Outside himself, he commenced the domestic season with three runs in three innings.
Then last week at the MCG, Hussey peeled off a domestic hundred, and a positive hundred at that, with 72 in boundaries. It's debatable whether such performances can be deemed to represent a restoration of that precious state of grace called 'form'; Mitchell Johnson, who took a fast, furious five-for in the same game, has here bowled like a drain. But at the very least it hinted that batting proficiency is only ever an innings away.
Here, as in Melbourne, Hussey set quickly about punishing even minor errors of length, the trampolining bounce tending to make short balls sit up for a batsman's delectation. He pulled Swann thrice early, Finn twice more, each shot comfortably controlled and kept to ground. After tea, Swann bowled to him with a deep mid-on and a deep mid-wicket, which he still bisected: in all, nine of Hussey's thirteen boundaries were cross-batted to leg. He seized on opportunities to drive too, and responded to a glare from Stuart Broad, which seems roughly equivalent to getting an earful from Aled Jones, by stroking him soundlessly through the covers â perhaps the shot of the day.
Now for the bad news. Clarke also made a hundred in the first innings of his most recent Sheffield Shield game, but when he batted low in the order in the second innings to save the aching discs in his lower back was gingerly walking singles as he drove the ball into the deep. Clarke told anyone who would listen that he was fine coming into this Test, giving himself a clean bill of health even on Shane Warne's new talk show, but his performance today suggested that you can't believe everything you see on television.
When Clarke's back first played up five years ago at Old Trafford, he batted like a man in a full body cast. Today he seemed resigned to limited mobility, and to be trying to play accordingly, but the conditions did not suit his forward press or his limited footwork. His travails against short-pitched bowling were painful for onlookers, and for him as well, especially when he nodded into a Broad bouncer as though he simply couldn't avoid it.
Clarke has made himself Australian cricket's marathon man â the only player being consistently selected in all forms of the game. He is trying to prove a point, but is now in danger of proving another. A year ago, Clarke seemed a banker to replace Hussey in the number four slot, yet his average since assuming the position as of right is just 20. Thirty in April, he should be in his batting prime. Australia needs more from number four: it will have to find it from somewhere.
27 NOVEMBER 2010
Day 3
Close of play: England 2nd innings 19â0
(AJ Strauss 11*, AN Cook 6*, 15 overs)
The first hour of the third day of the First Test contained 21 runs and the last hour 19 runs, although they were in their ways as integral to a fascinating contest as the 240 runs between times. Australia's survival of the first hour without losing a wicket was crucial to their dominance; England's similar survival at the end offers some hope for the morrow.
The balance of the day was almost entirely Australia's. Michael Hussey, 'Mr Cricket', fell five runs short of a double-hundred in five minutes short of 500 minutes, an innings encompassing 330 deliveries, a six, 26 fours, four threes, ten twos, and 53 singles â and which was as impressive as those vital statistics sound. It was model batting from a model professional. His head was bent as low over the ball at the end as at the start, like a
Then last week at the MCG, Hussey peeled off a domestic hundred, and a positive hundred at that, with 72 in boundaries. It's debatable whether such performances can be deemed to represent a restoration of that precious state of grace called 'form'; Mitchell Johnson, who took a fast, furious five-for in the same game, has here bowled like a drain. But at the very least it hinted that batting proficiency is only ever an innings away.
Here, as in Melbourne, Hussey set quickly about punishing even minor errors of length, the trampolining bounce tending to make short balls sit up for a batsman's delectation. He pulled Swann thrice early, Finn twice more, each shot comfortably controlled and kept to ground. After tea, Swann bowled to him with a deep mid-on and a deep mid-wicket, which he still bisected: in all, nine of Hussey's thirteen boundaries were cross-batted to leg. He seized on opportunities to drive too, and responded to a glare from Stuart Broad, which seems roughly equivalent to getting an earful from Aled Jones, by stroking him soundlessly through the covers â perhaps the shot of the day.
Now for the bad news. Clarke also made a hundred in the first innings of his most recent Sheffield Shield game, but when he batted low in the order in the second innings to save the aching discs in his lower back was gingerly walking singles as he drove the ball into the deep. Clarke told anyone who would listen that he was fine coming into this Test, giving himself a clean bill of health even on Shane Warne's new talk show, but his performance today suggested that you can't believe everything you see on television.
When Clarke's back first played up five years ago at Old Trafford, he batted like a man in a full body cast. Today he seemed resigned to limited mobility, and to be trying to play accordingly, but the conditions did not suit his forward press or his limited footwork. His travails against short-pitched bowling were painful for onlookers, and for him as well, especially when he nodded into a Broad bouncer as though he simply couldn't avoid it.
Clarke has made himself Australian cricket's marathon man â the only player being consistently selected in all forms of the game. He is trying to prove a point, but is now in danger of proving another. A year ago, Clarke seemed a banker to replace Hussey in the number four slot, yet his average since assuming the position as of right is just 20. Thirty in April, he should be in his batting prime. Australia needs more from number four: it will have to find it from somewhere.
27 NOVEMBER 2010
Day 3
Close of play: England 2nd innings 19â0
(AJ Strauss 11*, AN Cook 6*, 15 overs)
The first hour of the third day of the First Test contained 21 runs and the last hour 19 runs, although they were in their ways as integral to a fascinating contest as the 240 runs between times. Australia's survival of the first hour without losing a wicket was crucial to their dominance; England's similar survival at the end offers some hope for the morrow.
The balance of the day was almost entirely Australia's. Michael Hussey, 'Mr Cricket', fell five runs short of a double-hundred in five minutes short of 500 minutes, an innings encompassing 330 deliveries, a six, 26 fours, four threes, ten twos, and 53 singles â and which was as impressive as those vital statistics sound. It was model batting from a model professional. His head was bent as low over the ball at the end as at the start, like a
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