The mantra throughout this series has been to reserve judgment on a pitch until both sides have batted on it, but it was a surprise to see Michael Clarke win the toss and bat this morning. The thinking at Sydney used to be to avoid batting last on a turning pitch, but this has been less true of late and the covering of grass on the wicket coupled with the overhead conditions made the decision something of a gamble. It is certainly true that Clarke knows conditions at the SCG well and so it may turn out to be an act of genius, but the feeling is that the track will get easier to bat on over days two and three.
England bowled exceptionally well with the new ball but Watson and Hughes, both showing unexpected discipline, batted well until the final ball before lunch. It was almost as though Hughes could resist no longer and sparred indeterminately at a short ball outside the off stump, Collingwood completing a routine catch. This was a shame both for him and for Australia since surviving the first session with all ten wickets intact in tricky batting conditions would have been an impressive achievement and might have set up the rest of the day nicely for them. As it is, the jury is still out on Hughes’ suitability at the top of the order.
Coming in at fifty-five for one, Usman Khawaja immediately looked at home – he got a nice ball first up which he tucked away for two but the withering pull and decisive leave that followed were impressive. Sides may look to pack the area behind square on the off side against him as he seems prone to slicing the ball in the air through that region, but he showed enough class to suggest that he has a long test career ahead of him, and he and Watson moved forward nicely in the overs after lunch.
It wasn’t to last, however. Watson, having shown great diligence in the morning session and a greater array of strokes after the interval, fell in a manner that has almost, regrettably, become his trademark, pushing outside off stump with hard hands to the slips. The stump mic caught his cry of ‘Oh no’ as the ball flew off the edge – well though he has done at the top of the order he may be of more use to Australia lower down as they look to develop their side.
Michael Clarke then came and went as he has done throughout the series, batting like a man ill at ease with his game and looking to hit his way out of trouble. The cut shot that brought about his downfall was both poorly conceived and poorly executed and meant that, once again, the top order was putting pressure on those batting lower down. One suspects that Clarke is too good a player not to re-discover his touch but his batting in this series has been horrible – even when he made runs at Adelaide he batted frenetically and looked like getting out at any moment.
As the rain clouds circled it looked as though Khawaja and Hussey, who also rode his luck a little, would take Australia through to the close, but in the final over before the rain finally descended Khawaja played an ill advised sweep shot off Swann and was comfortably caught at square leg. It is not a dismissal that he will look back on with any enthusiasm but he will, hopefully, learn from it. He certainly looked less at ease in the six balls that he faced from Swann than he had done against the quicker bowlers, but overall he can be reasonably pleased with his debut effort.
It was, then, an intriguing, if truncated, day. England are probably just on top, but if Australia can bat well tomorrow then they are certainly still in this match.
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