Australia Day saw the return of some normality to the domestic cricket scene after the fireworks of the Twenty20 Big Bash. A decent crowd of just over 2,500 ventured to Wollongong to see South Australia chase down 295 in a highly entertaining contest against New South Wales.
The locals on the South Coast were treated to some big hitting from Dave Warner and Phil Hughes, whilst Shaun Tait demolished the home side’s top order.
However, the standout performance came from the 2008/09 domestic cricketer of the year, Michael Klinger.
The former Victorian who was considered to be too pedestrian for the fast paced Twenty20 series played the perfect one-day openers innings, scoring 124 from 133 balls. Together with Dan Christian, Klinger was involved in a 150-run fifth wicket stand and led to Redbacks to an unlikely victory after they found themselves struggling at 4/119.
Klinger is piling on the runs both in the Sheffield Shield and the Ford Ranger Cup.
Since crossing the border the Redbacks number 3 has amassed 1,858 runs in Shield cricket at an average of 80.78. This includes two double centuries, the most recent on his former home ground at the MCG. At one-day level, Klinger has opened for South Australia, and whilst the numbers aren’t as outstanding, 757 runs at an average over 50 is very impressive.
These figures suggest a batsman in seriously good form, not just a purple patch that will soon fade away.
Despite this scoring barrage there has been hardly a peep out of the Australian media or even the South Australian camp promoting Klinger for national selection. Amazingly, when The Australian’s Andrew Faulkner quizzed Darren Lehmann and Greg Blewett on who could replace the struggling Marcus North as Australia’s number 6, Klinger’s name was nowhere to be seen.
Blewett mused that Usman Khawaja could be the answer whilst “Boof” named George Bailey, Shaun Marsh and even the rotund Mark Cosgrove as possible replacements.
Perhaps if Klinger was a native South Australian these former South Australian legends would be leading the charge in promoting “Maxy” for higher honours.
The doubts hanging over Klinger stem from his years of under-achievement with Victoria and a scoring rate at first-class level below 50. Despite his propensity to score slowly, Klinger has shown this season that he can pick up the rate when needed, as shown by his 92 not out from 79 balls when pushing for a quick declaration against Queensland earlier this season.
There is currently no batsman in Australia who is posting the numbers that Klinger has notched up over the past two seasons. There is only one sure-fire way to see if he can take that form to the next level and that is to pick him for the tour of New Zealand.
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