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329 Not Out

by Whaleoil on January 6, 2012

Michael Clarke doesn’t have a bat sponsor….after yesterday and his 329 not out he will be fighting them off.

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  • Tamati Wiremu

    “After an innings like that, probably nobody could afford to sponser Michael Clarke”

    Tony Greig, Channel 9 

  • Peter Wilson

    Not a bad “bat” story there too

    Clarke could have gone on to beat Taylor and Bradman on 334, and targetted Hayden’s 380, and even 400. But no, he declared.

    Sort of the opposite to NZ when Bryan Young was on, I think 259, Crowe declared and left him stranded with no chance of getting 299, or NZ’s first 300.

    • Mooloo

      I agree Peter . Young men learn from their mistakes .Clarke did behave like a prune in Hobart , but has covered himself in glory at the SCG . I think he was genuinly considering the team only when he declared. I don’t know about the Crowe declaration but knowing some of the big ego’s  cricket attractede in the 80′s  it wouldn’t suprise me .
      As for a bat sponsor i imagine who ever made the bat he is using will be lining up pretty quickly.

    • Kimbo

      Hey, Peter

      You are usually really good on dotting your “i”s and crossing your “t”s,
      but you’ve unfortunately aroused my latent pedant function:

      You’re a bit tough on Hogan (although given his profile, I can
      understand why he sprang to mind). The skipper who declared on Bryan
      Young (in 1997) was actually Stephen Fleming: -

      http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63750.html.

      It is a pretty standard tactic, once have batted well into the second
      day and have scored at a good rate (and 4.01 in that era was very good)
      to look to declare at least an hour or so before stumps. That way you
      get to pick up a few wickets, while the batsmen can’t really settle in
      for a decent period to score a significant tally of runs, and you still
      have a relatively new ball to have a go at them again the next morning.

      Also, as per the attached…

      http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/153329.html

      “Young was warned of the declaration an hour before it came, and was
      happy to sacrifice further personal milestones for the team cause. It
      soon paid off, when Doull and Davis reduced Sri Lanka to 78 for four by
      stumps”.

      Don Bradman (who broke a few records) once said the aim of cricket was
      to win by the biggest margin, in the shortest time possible. NZ won that
      test by an innings and 36 runs in four days. If Sri Lanka had held on
      in the second innings to be 328/9 at stumps on the fourth evening, and
      the fifth day had been rained out, Fleming would have been rightly and
      severely criticised. 

      Michael Clark’s bat reminds me of the story of the great Australian
      batsman of the “golden age of cricket” before WWI, Victor Trumper.

      http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/7980.html

      Stylish Australian stroke makers like Dougie Walters, Mark Waugh, and
      Michael Clark are often compared to Trumper. His average and record was
      ok by today’s standards, but it was the panache, and devil-may-care
      style with which he scored his runs (he was the first man to score a
      century before lunch on the first day of a test match), as well as his
      early tragic death that made him an Aussie folk hero 20 years before
      Bradman.

      Anyway, Trumper attempted to make a living for a while, not very
      successfully as a sporting goods salesman. However, his carefree
      attitude to life and cricket was summed up when he was due to bat one
      afternoon at the SCG. When he found out he had left his usual bat at
      home, he grabbed the first one off the shelf that he could find. Without
      properly ascertaining if it had the right “feel”, he promptly scored a
      dazzling century. However, rather than auction it off as a valuable
      souvenir of the occasion, he put it back on the store shelf – at a
      discounted price because it was “used”,

  • Bunswalla

    Two weeks is a long time in cricket – is the Michael Clarke being feted for his batting and selflessness in declaring when he could have gone on to chase personal glory the same graceless dick that didn’t even mention New Zealand once in his interview after we spanked them in Hobart?

    If we’re making contrasts with kiwis, what about Ross Taylor whose first comment when asked about our great win was to praise David Warner for his superb innings in a losing team?

    • Anonymous

      A 7 run win is a spanking?

  • Mooloo

    I really enjoy watching history being made , It was also a joy to watch a young man grow up and take the leadership role ,ahead of his own self interest . True leadership. He needs to tone down some of his moron bowlers though.

  • Richard McGrath

    I wonder whether the lack of advertising was because the day was marked as a fundraiser for breast cancer with the colour pink prominent in the crowd, and on players and equipment (including the handle of Clarke’s bat).

  • Kosh103

    People still watch cricket? Huh, who knew.