Steve Waugh
It wasn’t made by an aussie legend.
It wasn’t in front of a ravenous home crowd.
It wasn’t the Ashes.
It wasn’t the last ball of the day with a boundary.
That is because it wasn’t Steve Waugh.
But it was a fairly emotional hundred. In all the times I have seen Clarke make a hundred I have only been emotionally moved twice, his first one, and this one.
The other 12 have been generally good innings with plenty of silky stroke play made usually when Australia was well on top. But I’ve never warmed to him, and every time there is a public poll about the Australian team it seems I am not alone.
This hundred was different.
The shots were all the same, the situation much the same, the bowling attack looked a bit the same, but Clarke’s story arc had changed.
This wasn’t the “cocky young well-groomed poster” boy, this was the “my life is pretty fucked up but lets get some runs” dude.
He had just spent one of the toughest weeks in his life after responding to this tweet from Bingle, “Wish you were here…” The paparazzi were all over him, even more so than when they were seemingly happy. Even his tweets slowed down, a sure sign that any cricketer is in an emotional flux.
Finally he comes back to play in the test, and on the first day, Australia stumble to 3/115, he could gift his wicket and few would blame him.
Instead he plays a top test innings, not the greatest of all time. Not something that Andrew Denton can talk about for years, there was no Aussie battler spirit or Gallipoli pride, just a professional cricketer getting his head sorted and setting his team up.
The hundred was brought up as Clarke drops the ball at his feet and hopes North doesn’t get run out. It was the first ball of the last over, and he obviously wanted it bad enough to put North in a bit of danger.
Steve Waugh would have milked the moment a little more, then played a big shot, made sure there was something to end the DVD with. No one knew who to pull on the heart strings like Waugh.
Clarke’s innings was like Jason Statham in the Death Race remake, too slick and easily forgettable. Waugh (like Carradine in Death Race 2000) knew that sometimes you need to really dirty it up, make it look tougher than it is and then get the timing right so that it will be remembered for ever. Clarke has much to learn in making himself popular.
I was just glad that for the first time in over 5 years Michael Clarke brought out an emotion in me that wasn’t violence.
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PS: I’d also like to apologise to Clarke for mentioning his innings in the same breath as the over polished turd that was the Death Race remake.
Who was polishing the turd that was the Death Race 2000 remake? It looked pretty matt fecal to me.
Clarke gets a pretty hard time, but sonce the start of the last ashes he consistently made hard runs. I like
very insightful comparison with Waugh. its amazing how greatness is 20% talent and 80% timing
And then Waugh went and got out 2nd ball the next morning.
.-= Jonathan´s last blog ..Sledging bingles =-.
I’m not a fan of Clarke but fair play he showed some ticker after all the hullabaloo. I bet the press conference after was dull though
.-= The Reverse Sweep´s last blog ..Tamim Iqbal’s ‘come and get me’ plea to the IPL =-.
of course it was clarke who was “affected” the most by the “hullabaloo”. and getting a hundred against a piss poor attack after your team is has 115 runs on board on a batting paradise is genius now?!
It was a good ton, but don’t overplay the hand by bringing Steve Waugh into it. That will just make me dislike him again.
Interestingly enough i saw both the death race remake and clarke’s innings in the weekend. To be honest i enjoyed death race more, but i’m All Kiwi, so it still doesn’t really such much about Death race. I respected the clarke/north combo more than frank/machine gun joe team-up.