Three days into the first Test of the summer between Australia and India and we appear to be heading for a draw – and for the second Test in Brisbane. And almost certainly in that order.
Here are the ratings for the Test so far.
>>FOLLOW THE LIVE SCORES OF THE AUSTRALIA VS INDIA TEST MATCH
David Warner
Grade: B
David Warner began the Test in aggressive fashion. Startling, I know. But this was Warner to the power of Sehwag times Gilchrist, with a dash of Richards (Viv) or Richards (Barry) thrown in.
At one stage, he was on target to score his century within 12 overs.
Instead, he somehow didn’t bring up three figures until the 36th over, off 106 balls. What went wrong, Dave?
Michael Clarke’s back
Grade: F
Michael Clarke had made his way to 60 before retiring hurt with a back injury that forced him to spend the rest of the day off the field getting treatment.
It was a serious blow for Australia, who had carelessly failed to select full-time stand-in captain George Bailey for this Test.
However, Brad Haddin stood up for the team, skilfully falling for a duck in the last over of the day in order to allow Clarke’s return first thing on Day Two. World-class vice-captaincy from the veteran wicketkeeper.
Before the second day’s play commenced, Channel Nine commentators used their new hologram technology to discuss Clarke’s injury and how he might cope with the short balls with which the Indian bowlers would inevitably pepper him.
It would be difficult for him to duck or sway. Nor would he be able to pull or hook without pain. His best bet seemed to be to emulate his hologrammatic counterpart and turn intangible whenever short balls threatened.
Alas, Clarke’s lack of ghostliness meant he had little choice but to instead stand his ground, grimace in pain, improvise whatever boundary shots his back would permit him, shuffle some crock singles and stubbornly will his way to a century.
And so he did.
It was tough stuff from a tough man.
Interestingly, Clarke’s previous century was equally tough, made with a fractured shoulder in South Africa. Is there a case to be made for breaking his knees and seeing if he can conjure up an innings of 400?
Maybe, maybe not. I’m no sports psychologist or loan shark goon. But either way, I back him to bounce back from this bad back with back-to-back centuries. And I won’t back down from that.
Sharmas
Grade: B-
Much like Mitches in an Australian cricket team, the Indians are fans of selecting Sharmas in theirs. For this Test, they went in with three – Rohit, Karn and Ishant.
Only 66.67% of them were part of the Indian bowling attack, and while they had some success (Ishant dismissing Australia’s favourite colour blind, old armguard-wearing, septuagenarian dancing opener Chris Rogers and Karn eventually taking the wickets of both Warner and Clarke), neither of them did particularly well against Mitchell Marsh.
Which was a shame for those of us who are massive fans of near palindromes and who had therefore been looking forward to a hard-fought Sharma-Marsh battle.
Luckily, when Rohit came out to bat, Clarke removed Johnson from the attack and tossed the new ball to Marsh. I knew I could rely on Pup to appreciate the value of palindromes.
Classic Catches
Grade: F-
Look, I don’t like to complain too much about the Channel Nine coverage. Or maybe I do. I don’t know. But their latest Classic Catches segment has me absolutely fuming.
Why? Because they’ve included the Faf du Plessis catch that he took off a no ball. This is clearly nonsense and a dangerous slippery slope. What next? Will they start adding run outs to the segment? Return throws to the keeper? Particularly high-intensity fielding drills?
Appalling stuff. I hope one of the governing bodies of the game (the ICC, CA, KFC) step in and put an end to this before it gets out of hand. The game deserves better.
Rain Delays
Grade: C
When Clarke joined Steve Smith on Day 2, most thought that the biggest threat to the partnership would be the aborted quick single run out that would almost certainly result in the dismissal of Steve Smith.
Instead, the biggest threat was the Adelaide rain, which on separate occasions forced both Smith and Clarke from the field while stranded on an Agarian 98.
Not that the delays hindered Smith one iota. He continued his outstanding form from the one day games against South Africa (remember them?) and brought up an emotional century, before launching an assault on the Indian bowlers that saw him carry on to 162 not out.
Smith’s innings enabled Clarke to declare on 7/517 at the end of Day Two. It looked an intimidating total. Then stand-in captain Virat Kohli (115) batted and it looked much less so.
MS Whoni?
To be continued…
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