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I always admired Michael Clarke as a batsman, captain and person. My admiration for him has shot up in the last few days as a warm and caring human being during the Phillip Hughes tragedy.
And on the first two days of the Adelaide Test I salute him as a batsman of the highest class. Despite his physical handicaps (bad back, hamstring problem) he batted superbly.
>>FOLLOW THE LIVE SCORES OF THE AUSTRALIA VS INDIA TEST MATCH
A heroic performance and a captain’s innings for sure.
However, in my opinion he erred in not declaring Australia’s innings an hour before stumps on Day Two.
How relieved the Indian batsmen were to escape facing a few ferocious deliveries from Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle and Ryan Harris in fading light.
I could almost lip-read India’s captain Virat Kohli praying that Clarke would not declare an hour or so before stumps on Wednesday. So preoccupied he was that he once dropped a catch in the slip he would normally have taken easily.
Rather than Australia batting on and on to reach 7/517 from 120 overs before the umpires stopped play, Clarke should have declared when the total reached 6/450 after 108 overs.
Those 10 overs were vital for Australia to grab a wicket or three as the Indians were exhausted doing the leather hunt provided by magnificent centurions from David Warner, Steven Smith and Clarke.
Usually Clarke is a daring skipper, always looking at victories rather than personal landmarks, like scoring most centuries (seven) in Tests in Adelaide.
My mind goes back to the run-rich January 2012 Sydney Test when he had declared the innings closed despite many more personal milestones awaiting him.
His unbeaten 329 off 468 balls was the only Test triple hundred on the SCG and the third highest score on the ground after Don Bradman’s 452 not out (for NSW versus Queensland in 1929-30) and 340 not out (for NSW versus Victoria in 1928-29).
In that majestic innings, man of the match Clarke had struck 39 fours and a six in his masterclass, which lasted ten hours and nine minutes.
He could have gone on to become the highest scorer for Australia in Tests, going past Matthew Hayden’s 380 against Zimbabwe at Perth in 2003-04.
So fluently was ‘Pup’ Clarke batting that even Brian Lara’s Test record of 400 not out (for West Indies versus England at St John’s in 2003-04) did not appear beyond him.
But Clarke had put the interests of his team over personal milestones by declaring at 4/659.
Australia went on to win that Test by an innings and 68 runs. Had he gone on for records, who knows, India could have saved the Test.
The Adelaide Test is still very much in Australia’s favour and they could win by a big margin to lead 1-0 in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
But in my opinion Clarke has thrown a life line to the Indians by delaying the declaration.