Clarke, Watson and the Run Out that Never Was

Australians: Lets get one thing straight. Rugby Union is a minority winter sport in this country reserved for public school boys who aren’t manipulative enough to become Members of Parliament and don’t understand the rules of football. (That is, of course, if you win at Twickenham today. If England win you can chalk it up amongst the world’s greatest ever sporting achievements: the 2003 Rugby World Cup, Ricky Hatton beating Kostya Tszyu and... Bodyline). On the other hand, Cricket is our national sport (and yours), and an Ashes Test is worth a million Rugby matches!

Since my last entry, Sri Lanka completed their first ever series victory on Australian soil. Pretty remarkable when you consider Sri Lanka have been a force for 20 years now (it’s been nearly 15 years since they won the World Cup). The likes of Aravinda De Silva, Arjuna Ranatunga, Sanath Jayasuriya and Chaminda Vaas have all toured our former penal colony without experiencing a series win so these boys can be very proud. They enjoyed it so much that they even let Australia win the third match. I cherish every remaining opportunity to watch Murali bowl and his (unintentional) one handed catch to dismiss Michael Clarke was beautiful. But without doubt the funniest thing to happen in the whole wide world of sport since Michael Clarke’s failed long barrier in the 2005 Twenty20 International at the Rose Bowl was… Michael Clarke’s attempted run out that ended in him hurling the ball into Shane Watson‘s knee from 2 yards away whilst both batsmen were in the opposite crease. If you missed it, follow the link below. I cry every time I watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7grSjJJuI-0

Whilst our hosts continue to falter, England have completed two warm up games. Western Australia were beaten thanks to some good bowling on a flat track. Stuart Broad, officially the world’s 4^th best all rounder according to ICC rankings, was man of the match with an accomplished and classy display and Graeme Swan, officially the worlds 5^th best all rounder, took 4 wickets on a flat day 3 WACA pitch. Steven Finn started understandably slow but credit to the skipper for giving him more overs than anyone else on day 3 which allowed him to acclimatise, improve and take 2 second innings wickets. Jimmy was a bit average and questions remain whether he can do real damage in unfriendly conditions. We showed a nice ruthless streak in forcing the victory despite some mediocre totals with the bat (KP and Strauss had good knocks along the way, both ’all rounders’ bludgeoned some late runs but Alistair Cook failed twice).

So going into the second warm up game in Adelaide, what did we want to see? Improvement from Cook, wickets for Jimmy Anderson and runs for the middle order?

What did we get? 111 not out from Cooky, 5 wickets for Jimmy and 94 and 61 from Collingwood and Bell respectively. Andrew Strauss scored his second century of the tour and the only batsman now without a half century on tour is Jonathan Trott whose form is not really a worry. Losing a session to rain meant a victory was impossible inside 3 days but many questions were answered and the performance was excellent.

These performances are all the more impressive when you consider that the two teams we’ve faced have the huge advantage of not having to pick from 6 out of the 7 Aussie States which is, at present, really hampering the Canary Yellow's progress.  Following their series defeat to Sri Lanka, Michael Clarke’s position has been subject to intense speculation. His possible replacement as both Vice and Future Captain, Marcus North, laid down the gauntlet to the cricketing world by posting 19 and 1 against England in Perth. From Barbados to Bangalore there is a sense of anticipated terror considering the stranglehold this man might hold over cricket for years to come!