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Michael Clarke is a splendid cricket captain, who, despite a poor win-loss record, has demonstrated a keen ability to make good decisions in the heat of a Test match battle.
But the man with Australia’s second most important job (or is it first?) made a bit of a blunder at the start of this Test match when he sent Alastair Cook’s men to the crease.
Sure, it was overcast and sure, in the last two Ashes Test matches at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the team batting first has capitulated spectacularly, but M. Clarke’s choice to bowl was simply the wrong decision.
The drop in wicket at the ‘G is flat, slow, and not conducive to spin, and while the first session of play, or at least half of it, would have been nice for the Australian quicks to practice their art, it was, is, and will always be a bat first wicket.
It appears that Clarke was seduced by moisture, which was lingering in the sky, in the humidity of the morning of 26 December, and in the pitch. But come lunch time, that wonderful Australian sun was beaming down on her minions with the glory that is usually reserved for royalty, and batting should have been good fun.
Alas, it wasn’t, and Mitchell Johnson with his horrifying moustache and his band of merry men knocked England over for a paltry 255. But this was not the result of great bowling conditions; it was because of good bowling.
When Australia were dismissed for 204 in their first dig, it was again because of good bowling, and some pretty mediocre batting.
Naturally some Roarers will suggest that if we knocked England over for less than 300 on the first day that it was the right call to bowl, and others will say that if Australia with the Test, which they have a wonderful chance of doing, then it doesn’t matter, but I opine that it does.
It matters for two reasons. The first of these is that there is a whole country desperate for a 5-0 drubbing over this English outfit and desperate for Australia to keep their collective foot on the throat of each English cricket, and it matters because each Test match is as important as its predecessor and its successor. Test cricket is the pinnacle of the world’s greatest sport, and winning the toss is a luxury not to be squandered.
Michael Clarke is an Australian hero, and rightly so, but his decision to bowl on Boxing Day 2013 will, in this Roarer’s opinion, go down as a mistake. It appears his side will get him off the hook, but lets hope he doesn’t make this mistake again.
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