Brave Hussey leads tough fight

Australia vs England, 1st Test - Day 2
Friday November 26 2010.


England - 260 (Bell 76, Cook 67, Siddle 6/54)
Australia - 5/220 (Hussey 81 n.o, Katich 50, Anderson 2/40, Finn 2/61)

Full scorecard here.

Since day one (whenever that was, the end of last year's Ashes I guess), I have remained fervently in support of Michael Hussey's place in the team far more than that of Marcus North, despite no real ostensible difference in their performances. Hussey is Mr Cricket. He gives off a vibe of someone who when it really matters, at a defining crossroads in his career in the most important of cricketing contests, would rise to the occasion. Today he showed his true colours with a fine unbeaten 81 which has in all likelihood saved Australia's blushes.

Hussey's aggressive intent from ball 1, particularly on the back foot and against an oddly reticent Graeme Swann was a joy to watch. He came to the crease at the most highly charged and challenging of moments, with a fired up English attack having taken the double break through of Simon Katich and Ricky Ponting to bring the game back to an even keel. Aside from an edge just shot of first slip on the first ball he faced, Hussey looked totally in control. His crucially timed partnership of 77 with Brad Haddin, which will resume tomorrow, took Australia from the precarious position of 5 for 143 to a strong position at stumps.

The day started positively for Australia with Shane Watson and Simon Katich surviving a good spell of pressure bowling from England’s pace triumvirate. All the luck was on the openers’ side, including a reverse LBW decision when Katich was initially given out for 27. Watson soon took control, confusing the lengths of the English bowlers when he became the first person in the game to pick apart the full length he ironically had pioneered a day earlier. His ferocious drives down the wicket took him past Katich to 36 before Anderson had him caught at slip by the captain Strauss, the very next ball after an unsuccessful review of a not-out LBW decision.

Watson’s dismissal left Australia at 1 for 78 but Katich and Ponting were able to survive to lunch and ensure their front running position at 1 for 96. After lunch all hell broke loose. With the 2^nd ball of the afternoon session James Anderson, who bowled with great probing discipline all day, had Ponting out for 10 caught behind flicking off his legs. Four runs later, after reaching a well compiled 50, Katich offered Steven Finn a return catch and his first Ashes wicket. With this two-pronged blow, Australia had Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey new to the crease. Clarke had yet to answer questions about his bad back while Hussey as ever was fighting for his place in the team. But you wouldn’t have thought so by the way he played, quickly going on the attack against Swann and moving to 20 in no time. Clarke did not have the same luxury of supreme confidence, to say the least. He looked jumpy, rhythmless and overall rather third rate in his 50 balls of struggle before inevitably getting out for 9. Speaking of inevitability, Marcus North then failed. North had just 1 when he made an amateurish lunge at a fairly innocuous traditional off spinner from Swann and edged straight to Paul ‘Eddie McGuire’ Collingwood at slip. At 5 for 143, England’s score of 260 was suddenly looking decidedly competitive. But Brad Haddin, playing with admirable restraint, supported Hussey through to tea and then onwards. Australia would probably have reached a lead by stumps had the umpires not gone off 18 overs early on a completely arbitrary bad light basis. In a frustrating quirk of irony, the heavens then opened and ensured the day’s play was complete.

The match remains very alive, but save for a big collapse tomorrow morning, Australia should be well on the way to a healthy first innings lead, including a vintage Hussey hundred with luck. Bear in mind that Australia must bat last on a pitch of questionable durability, so they optimally need to reach as close to 400 as possible tomorrow and then bowl very well in the 2^nd innings. Any 4^th innings target beyond about 150 will not be easy.

Highlights

*** -  Mike Hussey without a doubt. A quality score is never out of the question but the intent and style of his innings was tremendous, possibly his best knock since the vintage of 2005-07.

** - Shane Watson and Simon Katich. Australia's unlikeliest all time great opening pair continue to impress with another solid 78 runs today. Their foundation could prove key to an Ashes winning summer.

* - Movember. I should really have mentioned them yesterday seeing as Australia were bowling, but in all the excitement I scarcely had time to even think about them. But Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus' moustaches are truly fantastic. There is a very pleasing three musketeer quality about Johnson's pornstar look, Hilfenhaus' cut short handle bar hash job (thanks to Mr Hilfenhaus who vetoed the full handle bar) and Siddle's grub which inexplicably somehow completely suits his face. All for a worthy cause too.

Lowlights

*** - Michael Clarke. Yes above Marcus North. I know everyone's allowed a bad day but Clarke's was a particularly awful day today. The demons that kind of an innings can cause don't usually heal fast. A first ball duck would probably have been far less damaging to his confidence and Australia's overall Ashes chances. 

 
** - Marcus North. I feel quite sorry for North because he's an honest hard-working cricketer and I have a lot of respect for what he does. Once he gets in he can reach Rahul Dravid-like levels of concentration and immovability, usually without the pervasive boredom as well. But he hardly ever reaches double figures nowadays. If he doesn't do something big in the 2nd innings this could be his last test, but I would hope Australia don't find themselves in a last innings position sufficiently desperate to need such heroism.

* - Bad light delays. As the Channel Nine commentators alluded to, a review is badly needed of the archaic rules relating to bad light. Leaving the field if ambient light becomes insufficient was implemented before the time of helmets and door-sized under-clothes padding specifically as an option if the umpires deemed it a hazard to the physical health of the players to continue. This is hardly a problem nowadays and Bad Light calls have become inherently tactical, especially as traditionally an umpire will 'offer' the opportunity to leave the ground to the batsmen. Late afternoon periods of fading light will always be supremely tough to bat during and no mentally sane batsmen is going to decline a bad light offer. Think of the drama we'd get in Test matches with some nice juicy periods of play in the dusk.