Clarke must stop the ODI rot tonight
Columnist By David Lord, 10 Jul 2012 David Lord is a Roar Expert
- Tagged:
- Australia cricket, Cricket, England cricket, Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke trudges back to the pavilion
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The Australian ODI tour of England is a planning and performance disaster. As a result Michael Clarke has suffered his first series defeat as Australian captain, but it could get worse tonight at Old Trafford if the Australians lose again.
It will be the first time in ODI history Australia has been whitewashed in a series of 5-games or more. Not becoming of the world’s number one ranked nation.
Johnson happy to get stuck into England
Had the third game at Edgbaston not been washed out and England won all five, Alastair Cook’s team would have jumped from fourth ranked in the world to number one, and for the first time been top-ranked in all three formats – Tests, ODIs, and Twenty20.
Former Australian skipper Mark Taylor has been reasoning on Channel Nine the Australians are out-of-season, and look rusty. Too kind.
Australian coach Micky Arthur is closer to the truth – he’s spitting chips.
“I want to see some mongrel out there Tuesday (tonight), I really do. I think we have been a bit submissive this whole series.
“We’ve been allowed to be bullied, and we are better than that. I’m talking mental toughness, I’m talking presence”.
Arthur could have added pride, which has been severely lacking as well as most of the Australians don’t look particularly interested, and are playing like it.
If the Australians are rusty why weren’t they better prepared? That’s Arthur’s job.
In essence, this poorly conceived tour is just another greedy money-grabbing exercise with every game played before comfortably filled grounds.
A financial bonanza for English cricket, and a big morale boost for next year’s Ashes series in England. The majority of both ODI teams on duty are Test players.
The ODI results make stark reading:
* At Lords – England won by 15 runs.
* At The Oval – England won by six wickets, with 26 deliveries in hand.
* At Edgbaston – abandoned.
* At Chester-le-Street – England won by eight wickets, with 13 deliveries left.
Comprehensive, making it seven successive ODI home series victories for England. They are playing tremendously positive cricket.
The current series proves just that:
England has scored 11-725, averaging 65.91 per wicket – Australia 25-708, averaging 28.32.
One-way traffic.
That translates to the success of the four-prong England pace attack of Jimmy Anderson, Steve Finn, Tim Bresnan, and Stuart Broad claiming 19 of the 25 Australian wickets to fall.
With Eoin Morgan, Jonathan Trott, Ravi Bopara, Ian Bell, and Alastair Cook scoring 669 of England’s 725 runs.
It has been a nightmare for Australia, but England can’t stop smiling, with Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen, and keeper Matt Prior to be added when the Ashes get underway in July-August next year at Trent Bridge, Lords, Old Trafford, Chester-le-Street, and The Oval.
So stop the rot tonight Michael Clarke, so you can come home having salvaged something out of the wreckage.
The Ashes journey begins
The Australian cricket team have left Australia to begin their tour of England, with a mission to reclaim the Ashes.
Australian captain Michael Clarke and his teammates were optimistic about their chances before jetting off.
Click here to hear the thoughts of our Australian cricket team as they left for England.
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- Explore:
- Australia cricket, Cricket, England cricket, Michael Clarke
July 10th 2012 @ 1:52am
murph73 said | July 10th 2012 @ 1:52am | Report comment
It’s obvious the rot is here to stay. Mitchell Johnson getting a CA contract is enough evidence to know that CA has learned nothing from the kicking it got from the Poms 18 months ago.
July 10th 2012 @ 5:32am
Xiedazhou said | July 10th 2012 @ 5:32am | Report comment
Clarke is part of the problem not part of the solution. He bats to protect his wicket, and sits back and soaks up balls, even when he is “set”. Incoming batsmen then have to chase the runs and take the risks. Surely it is incumbent on the senior batsman to lead from the front?
July 10th 2012 @ 5:51am
breakdown said | July 10th 2012 @ 5:51am | Report comment
Yeah the last thing you want is a batsman to protect his wicket and accumulate runs. Take Jonathan Trott that type of play has got him nowhere hey. we need more players like warner who just try and slog everything, like the other day when he struggled to 2 of 19 deliveries.
This is the exact thing australian cricket is getting wrong. We think we have to have 20-20 players in every form of the game when the real issue is that we have no genuine classy batsman like Cook, Bell and Trott in our top 3. Watson at times looks the real deal I must admit but warner and forrest please.
July 10th 2012 @ 9:16am
Xiedazhou said | July 10th 2012 @ 9:16am | Report comment
Nothing at all wrong with batsmen that accumulate runs in limited overs games, as long as they keep the score ticking over. 80 balls for 40 runs will however lose your team most matches, and too often i see Clarke, the senior batsman in the side, playing out dot balls, but then expecting newer players in the side to push for runs, even if they come in after Clarke’s already faced plenty of balls. if Clarke wants to play the anchor role, then he has to step up and come in to bat higher up the order.
July 10th 2012 @ 7:04pm
mushi said | July 10th 2012 @ 7:04pm | Report comment
Luck for clark accoridng to cric info he’s never in his career posted a 50 or lower strike rate when scoring 40 runs
Hell he’s only posted in the 50s 5 times out of 80 matches, so under your criteria i don’t see the problem.
July 10th 2012 @ 6:25am
onside said | July 10th 2012 @ 6:25am | Report comment
‘In essence, this poorly conceived tour is just another greedy money-grabbing exercise with every game played before comfortably filled grounds’.
I think the Australian public agree with you.They are not overly fussed about Australia losing because 1,either way,win or lose,they dont really care about the result,and 2, the media pressure is applied not so much on the players, but the organisers
Oh dear,I’ve missed another ODI cricket final.Never mind, there’s another one on tomorrow
July 10th 2012 @ 8:31am
Christo the Daddyo said | July 10th 2012 @ 8:31am | Report comment
I’ve said in other posts, but it’s worth repeating…
I hope Cricket Australia made a LOT of money from this tour, because in every other aspect its been an abject failure. Not one player has advanced his cause, and we’ve had Cummins, Lee, Watson and Johnson injured.
And let’s not allow the coaching staff to slink out of the room unnoticed either – how long is Justin Langer going to be persisted with as batting coach? Again, there is not a single batsman who has improved under his guidance. And several have possibly had their careers either ruined, or at least seriously damaged – Hughes, Khawaja and Marsh.
Accountability please administrators!
July 10th 2012 @ 12:47pm
Hansie said | July 10th 2012 @ 12:47pm | Report comment
Exactly right about Langer. CA seem to feel that he is owed a job.
July 10th 2012 @ 8:45am
Disco said | July 10th 2012 @ 8:45am | Report comment
We’re stuck with Arthur what with his conflicting role as coach and selector, but I do wish Johnson would desist from talking to the media.
July 10th 2012 @ 9:12am
David Lord said | July 10th 2012 @ 9:12am | Report comment
Why Disco? That’s the only thing he’s good at.
July 10th 2012 @ 1:10pm
Disco said | July 10th 2012 @ 1:10pm | Report comment
What he’s good at is being mates with the people who matter.
July 10th 2012 @ 9:30am
Bearfax said | July 10th 2012 @ 9:30am | Report comment
I’m afraid blaming Clarke, is aiming at thw wrong target. Sure he may ‘soak up’ balls and not score as quickly as he should, but he is protecting a very fragile batting line up and knows someone has to stick around. Cant blame his captaincy because quite frankly he doesnt have the players he can rely on. I can accept Oz is now going through a rebuilding stage having lost great perfromers in Hayden, Gilchrist, Warne, McGrath and watching Lee, Ponting and Hussey at the twilight of their careers. But they have errer by bringing in a selection of only good shield palyers, while missing the opportunity of blooding some young potential future stars. Sure we would still be losing, we’re up against some hardening experienced and talented Englsih players, but they would be getting worthy experience at the top level and a year down the track the benfits would start to be shown.
Why the selectors are going for the Marsh’s, Cowens, Forrests, Baileys etc (maybe wrong about Bailey who is a good batsman), all competent batsmen in their late 20s but that’s about as good most of them will get, is puting Oz back a further rung. Get the talented kids in there. Let them take the bruises. They’ll learn. Seems other international teams risk their young players (I remember Lara and Tendulkah starting off as teenage International cricketers and struggling at first), but Oz seems to prefer the older players. That’s OK when you’ve got a Martin, Hussey, Boof, Hodge etc in the batting wings, but Oz doesnt have the quality of players sitting around any more.
July 10th 2012 @ 10:15am
Brendon said | July 10th 2012 @ 10:15am | Report comment
We’ve been missing Michael Hussey this series and considering hes close to retirement things are starting to look grim for our ODI batting. Clarke has been solid but Watson, D.Hussey and Warner are inconsistent. Forrest and Bailey are clearly not up to the job.
Why not give Phil Hughes and Usman Khawaja a go? They’re only first class players? Nonsense. Most of England’s ODI batting line up is their test line up.
July 10th 2012 @ 11:44am
Seano said | July 10th 2012 @ 11:44am | Report comment
Is it just me or is Ravi Bopara a completely different player in England, he looks a world Beater over there an rubbish anywhere else!
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July 10th 2012 @ 11:56am
tonysalerno said | July 10th 2012 @ 11:56am | Report comment
Hi David Lord,
I don’t think it can’t be all of Clarke’s bat tonight ( no pun intended).
He will step up and put in a good performance, but if Australia is going to win tonight, it has to be a collective effort. Playing for pride is always dangerous and it may be just enough for the Aussies to avoid disaster tonight.
July 10th 2012 @ 12:31pm
Tobes said | July 10th 2012 @ 12:31pm | Report comment
Clarke has been very impressive since taking over the captaincy of the side.
IMO there have been 2 errors that would have the impact of destabilising the team that may point to the first major flaw in Clarke’s captaincy.
The first was the selection and then ongoing retention of Marsh ahead of Khawaja. While Usman wasn’t setting the world alight he was making a solid start to his test career (similar to Cowan). He is young and probably should have been given more time to develop. To then see Marsh retained despite continual failure you wonder what impact this had on his disappointing domestic season. Hopefully Usman can get his head right and pile on the runs to get back up the pecking order.
The other and more recent error was the selection of Johnson. Last summer when the Aussie bowlers were red hot Johnson was so far down the pecking order in everyone’s mind however this was obviously not the case for the selectors. Whether or not you are a Johnson fan his record, in particular recent record prior to getting injured, and the fact he is coming back from injury meant that Johnson did not deserve to be on the current tour. Unfortunately his performances have done nothing but highlight this.
Is Clarke favouring his mates and is this his captaincy achilles heel?