Clarke's triple century + Hussey's 150* dominate India T2D3

India 191& 2/114 (41ov) trail Australia 4/659 dec (163ov, Clarke 329*, Hussey 150*, Ponting 134, Zaheer Khan 3/122) by 354 runs with 8 second inings wickets in hand: T2/4 D3/5 at the SCG.

Michael Clarke's unbeaten 329/468b (1x6, 39x4) quite rightly defined the today's play. It was the highest individual score made by an Australian in a Test at the SCG and, had he chosen to bat on for a few minutes, Clarke would almost certainly have overtaken the current record highest score ever made by Australians: 334 by Don Bradman and Mark Taylor.

But he didn't, and for what it's worth I think he should have. this was a genuine match situation - remember he came to the wicket at 3/37-  and his innings was played against a good (on paper at least) attack whose deficiencies he today continued to expose. Yes conditions - good weather, good pitch - favoured batting, but the concentration required to maintain focus and to play so many effective strokes all round the wicket (check out his wagon wheel ) made this innings one of the greatest ever played in Test cricket.

Then of course there was Mike Hussey, who with Clarke added 334*  for the fifth wicket, meaning that after the initial wobble Australia added 1/622 (reminiscent of England's 1/517 dec against them at Brisbane  in 2010)
The declaration came when Hussey reached his 150/253b (1x6, 16x4). He looked positive throughout but especially in the latter stages of the partnership played second fiddle to Clarke's brilliance. But it was a quality second fiddle.

And India? Once again the bowling lacked penetration, partly because of its own deficiencies (pace bowlers dropping in pace and not being able to move the ball much, main spinner not as accurate or resourceful as he might have been) and partly because of the brilliance of the Australian batting. The fielding, too, was pretty listless.

So far the Indian batting hasn't fallen apart in its second innings, despite the loss of two of the big four: Virender Sehwag for 4 and, when he seemed to be living up to his "wall" soubriquet, Rahul Dravid for 29/73b (6x4), both Ben Hilfenhaus vicitm.  Gautam Gambhir is holding things together with a sometimes flashy 64*/124b (9x4). He's been dropped once by Brad Haddin off James Pattinson (who needs to moderate his appealing, which often shades into dissent) so will need to ride his luck, as will Sachin Tendulkar who came within a whisker of playing on during his 8*/42b (1x4), if India are to have any hope of making a contest of the Test. It's hard to imagine them doing so.

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England complete 3-1 series floorwiping,

England 644 defeated Australia 280 & 281 by an innings & 83 runs: T5 D5 at SCG.

England win series 3-1 and retain ashes.

Player of the Match and Series: Alistair Cook.

As expected, England wrapped up the match and series this morning after some resolute if belated resistance from Steven Smith and Peter Siddle.

Congratulations to England: they outplayed Australia in all departments of the game. Alistair Cook and Jimmy Anderson were expected to be liabilities yet they turned into gilt-edged assets. England's off-field preparation was first-class, too, despite the occasional raised eyebrow about the number of support staff.

Australia will probably drop back to number 5 in the world Test rankings which, notwithstanding my disdain for that system, is probably a fair place for them. Their next encounter will be against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka in August which may not bring much joy either. By then there will of necessity have been much soul-searching among the Australian cricket players and administrators to follow not just the reality checks of the scorecards and the painful reminders of the video records but also the outpourings of supporter criticism.

England may rise even further in the rankings: their forthcoming home series against India should be a cracker, for which they should IMO start favourites.

But that's in the future. Now to the limited over phase of the tour (which I, if you've not already gathered, find less interesting). After a couple of T20 games there will be an overlong 7 match ODI series. On their last tour England, on the ropes of their Test 0-5 drubbing, made an eleventh hour recovery to snatch the title. Can Australia regroup too (as they did after losing the Ashes in 2009)?
I'm not predicting anything.

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Another one sided day as England grind Australia into dust: T5 D4 .

Australia 280 & 7/213 (67 ov) need 152 more runs to make England 644 (117.5 ov, A Cook 189, M Prior 118, I Bell 115, A Strauss 60, M Johnson 4/168, B Hilfenhaus 3/121) bat again. T5 D4 at SCG.

Australia's agony continued as first England piled on the runs to move past 600, Matt Prior continuing to make merry before he virtually threw his wicket away for 118/130b (1x6, 11x4), after whic the last pair took the total to 644, the highest ever made by England in Australia.

Australia's reply began promisingly before an appallingly inept piece of running saw Shane Watson again run out. 1/46 descended to 7/213 as, yet again, most of the batters got a start but couldn't build on it. Once again the superbly drilled England pace bowlers extracted a lot more life from the pitch and variation from the ball than their Australian opposite numbers had done.

What more can I say? A lot, but not just now thank you.

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England in better position though Australia has its moments T5 D2

England 3/167 (48ov, A Cook 61*, A Strauss 60) trail Australia 280 (106.1 ov, M Johnson 53, J Anderson 4/66) by 113 runs on first innings: T5/5 D2/5 at SCG.

Mitchell Johnson 53/66b (1x6, 5x4) and Ben Hilfenhaus 34/58b (1x6, 3x4) saw Australia to a better than expected, if still below par, 280 before Andrew Strauss cut loose, with Alistair Cook in support, in a first wicket stand of 98 which put England on the fast track to a first innings lead. The Australian pace attack wilted in the face of the assault but out of the blue Hilfenhaus produced a beauty - moving one away to clip the off stump - which dismissed Strauss for 60/58b (1x6, 8x4) and prompted an Australian revival of sorts, kicked on by Johnson bowling Jonathon Trott for a duck..

Michael Beer, the virtually unknown slow left armer, didn't bowl until two wickets were down and the total past 100 . He tossed the ball up, was hit, but could should have had a wicket when Cook mistimed a drive, was caught and walked before Umpire Bowden, drawing upon his extensive repertoire of gestures, ascertained via the TV umpire that the delivery was - just - a no ball. Why he couldn't have it called it so escapes me. That said, there was no excuse for a slow bowler to bowl a no-ball.

At stumps Cook was 61*/141b (6x4) and England still on track for a first innings lead, unless the Australian bowlers emulate their English counterparts and wear the batting down with accurate bowling.

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Australia down though not out after rain shortened day: T5D1

Australia 4/134 (59 ov, S Watson 45) v England: T5/5, D 1/5 at SCG

After Michael Clarke won the toss and opted to bat Australia struggled against the tight England bowling we've come to expect to post a modest, though not disastrous, total on a day shortened appreciably by rain and bad light.

It looked as if they'd get through the first session without loss, but then in the last over Philip Hughes, who'd hitherto been prudent in his shot selection, flashed at Chris Tremlett and was (again) caught in the slips by(again) Paul Collingwood for 31/93b (5x4).

The weather permitted only another 30.3 overs to be bowled for the rest of the day, during which time the total moved from 1/51 to 4/134. Clarke's scratchy 4/21b was not a great start to his captaincy career, and while Shane Watson, more watchful than usual, and Usman Khawaja, who showed signs of a promising temperament, looked to have done the hard yards they, like Hughes, didn't go on to better things. Watson nicked Tim Bresnan to slip for 45/127b (5x4), and Khawaja top-edged Graeme Swann to backward square leg for 37/95b (5x4).

Rain stopped play before Brad Haddin (promoted to no 6) could join Mike Hussey at the wicket. Tomorrow morning the BOM predicts a 40% chance of rain, so Australia may not complete their first innings. Nor may they have added many runs.

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Australia take series: Windies a match for Afghanistan?

ODI#3 at the SCG was a washout where only one over, delivered in in two instalments - seven balls (including two wides), punctuated by a long rain break, then the sixth legit one - could be bowled as the West Indies began to chase down Australia's 225.

Today Australia won ODI#4 comfortably, more so than the scorecard indicated. After Chris Gayle, for reasons which eluded me, chose to field after winning the toss, Ricky Ponting's 106/112b (2x6, 6x4), his best ODI innings of the season, led the charge against a modest attack. 7/325 was always going to be too many for the uneven Windies batting to chase unless Gayle matched Ponting though they gave it a good shake, which might have been even better had Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Smith come in earlier.

Australia now leads the series 3-0 with one to play. Would, I wonder without too much of my tongue in my cheek, Afghanistan who have just qualified for the ICC World Twenty20, provide a more even contest if they played the West Indies? We may soon find out.

Australia [cliche deleted] v Pakistan T2 D4

Australia 127 & 381 (125.3 ov, M Hussey 134*, S Watson 97, Danish Kaneria 5/151) beat Pakistan 333 & 139 (38.0 ov, N Hauritz 5/53) by 36 runs: T2 D3 at Sydney.


I was wrong again. As were most other commentators. Australia's determination trumped Pakistan's intermittent flair and underlying lack of self-belief.

There were two distinct phases of the day's play. In the first Mike Hussey and Peter Siddle moved sensibly, taking advantage of some defensive field placings and another missed catch at the wicket, from 8/286, effectively 8/80, past 318, when Hussey brought up his century in 195b (14x4), then a further 20 wicketless overs to 8/373 ( Hussey 127*, Siddle 37*) at lunch.

Pakistan's fortunes revived after the interval as Siddle fell for a determined 38/117b (2x4) and Bollinger followed soon after leaving Hussey unbeaten on 134/284b (16x4).

The second phase was Pakistan's attempt to make 176 for victory. For a time it was edge of the seat stuff as the openers put on 34 before Doug Bollinger dismissed Imran Farhat. Salman Butt and Faisal Iqbal took the total to 51 before Mitchell Johnson had them both caught behind, Iqbal straightforwardly, Butt brilliantly by Brad Haddin whose keeping generally showed up the shortcomings of his opposite number.

Mohammad Yousuf and Umar Gul, Pakistan's best pair, came together and took the score to 3/77, including taking 12 off a Nathan Hauritz over, at tea. Anybody's game.

Ricky Ponting opted to continue with Hauritz after the interval. The captain's judgment, so much of which had been questioned throughout the match, was vinidcated when Yousuf belted a return catch to the bowler. Two balls later Misbah-ul-Haq fell.

At 5/77 it looked to be game over, though the brothers Akmal hung around for a while, Umar shepherding his older sibling through a 26 and Mohammad Sami through a 30 run partnership

The Australian bowlers persisted taking advantage of the brittle Pakistan lower order (the pitch was still playing well). Bollinger 2/32 from 12, Johnson 3/27 from 10, and Hauritz 5/53 from 12 overs (his second ever Test and first class 5 wickets in an innings haul in successive Tests) were too good.

Mike Hussey deservedly won the Player of the Match Award. He admitted that he was lucky to be missed three times behind the stumps but te fact remains that he rode his luck extremely well. He is definitely not yet finished as a Test batsman.

It's difficult to explain why Pakistan fell apart on D4 (and late on D3). For a perspective from their side see Osman Samiuddin on Cricinfo .

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Pakistan's day ...again: T2 D2

Pakistan 9/331 (96 ov, Salman Butt 71, Imran Farhat 53) lead Australia 127 by 204 runs with 1 first inns wkt in hand: T2 D2 at SCG.

Pakistan produced an impressive batting performance founded on a solid 108 run opening stand btween Salman Butt 71/164b (9x4) and Imran Farhat 53/140 (4x4). Then cameo innings from Mohammad Yousuf 46/56b (8x4) and wonder boy Umar Akmal 49/48b (9x4) gave Australia more cause for concern. But the middle and lower order didn't contribute much, which has prompted some of the TV and radio pundits, notably Kerry O'Keefe, to contemplate a possible Pakistan meltdown in the last three days.

While a major Australian recovery is not impossible, this looks like wishful thinking, a she'll be right mate back projection from the not long gone golden days of Australian cricket when a first innings deficit, even a 200 run one, was a spur to higher and better things.

These past two days several points have become pretty well self-evident . One is that the Australian attack is essentially composed of honest toilers. Another is that the Pakistan batting has shifted up a couple of gears: while the tail may be brittle the specialists are capable of scoring a lot of runs, even in the fourth innings on a wearing pitch.

If Australia are to win from here it's hard to see them doing so without taking advantage of a fourth and fifth day wicket, If this does happen will the many commentators** who condemned Ricky Ponting's decision to bat see the error of their ways or at least the irony of the situation?

Update 5 January

** Shane Warne a perceptive exception.



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Pakistan's day: T2 D1

Pakistan 0/14 (4.1 ov) trail Australia 127 ( 44.2 ov, Mohammad Asif 6/41) on first innings by 113 runs; T2 D1 at SCG.

From a comprehensive defeat in Melbourne sunshine to a dominant first day in overcast Sydney. What a turnaround in form for Pakistan (and Australia).

After a start delayed by drizzle Mohammad Asif, 6/41 from 20 ov, and Mohammad Sami, 3/27 from 12, used the green pitch and overcast conditions well to trouble Australia, who had chosen to bat after winning the toss (Pakistan would have fielded). Phillip Hughes was dropped at slip off the first ball he faced but still didn't get off the mark, Ricky Ponting was out first ball to an agricultural version of his favourite pull shot while Shane Watson, who'd looked relatively composed, was caught behind for 6.

Australia never recovered from 3/10, though Mike Hussey hung around for 28, Mitchell Johnson slogged 38 and added 44 for the 8th wkt with Nathan Hauritz. 127 was better than had looked likely at one point but, even making some allowance for the conditions, it was a below par effort.

Just how much below par remains to be seen. Pakistan's batting mettle will, weather permitting, be tested tomorrow. They will be looking for a lead of 100 or so to maintain their advantage over an Australian team which surely can't bat as badly in the second innings as it did today.

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