Match Analysis

Clarke craves time in the middle after tough day

Australia's best player of spin failed in both innings, as Pakistan's tweakers made life difficult for Clarke and the rest

Michael Clarke has only played one ODI and one warm-up match since March  •  Getty Images

Michael Clarke has only played one ODI and one warm-up match since March  •  Getty Images

You have to hand it to Michael Clarke, he doesn't shirk responsibility when things go wrong. In a different era, the Australians used to ask then coach Tim Nielsen to answer the hard questions on days like this. "Tough Day Tim", the media called him. But often during Clarke's captaincy he has insisted he front the press when the team has failed, most notably when they were skittled for 47 in Cape Town in 2011. Add day four in Dubai to that list.
This was a day on which Pakistan scored 248 runs with what seemed the greatest of ease. At length, Australia claimed two wickets of little consequence as the lead ballooned. Then came the other side of the equation. In the space of 23 balls, Australia lost four wickets for five runs as the spinners Zulfiqar Babar and Yasir Shah bamboozled the batsmen. And most critically, Australia's best player of spin was one of them.
Clarke was on 3 when he prodded forward to Yasir and was adjudged lbw to a ball that straightened. A lengthy chat with his partner Chris Rogers led to a glum-looking Clarke deciding against a review and trudging off. Replays suggested that Clarke had got an inside edge on the ball and would likely have been reprieved had he challenged the decision. That he didn't said something about Australia's lack of confidence.
"Ah, I'd like to know as well," Clarke said when asked what had gone through his head. "There's a number of things. The fact that I wasn't sure if I hit the ball and I was unsure if it hit my bat before my pad. So I was thinking it was probably pad then bat if I did hit it at all. Chris was unsure as well up the other end.
"My mindset is because I'm unsure I didn't want to waste the referral when I knew the rest of my team-mates were probably going to need them tomorrow. It was certainly a mistake, an error on my part looking back at the replay once I walked off the field. I'm extremely disappointed. I'm disappointed that it was even that close. The ball didn't really spin much. I should have used my bat."
It continued a disappointing tour for Clarke, who scratched to 2 in the first innings before inside-edging onto pad and up to short leg in the first innings, having made 10 and 5 in the warm-up game in Sharjah. His limited preparation was unavoidable, given the hamstring injury he suffered during the one-day series in Zimbabwe in August, but has left him short of game time in the lead-up to the Test.
"My performance in this Test match has been disappointing with the bat. There's no doubt about it," Clarke said. "I read somewhere the other day that I'm short of match practice and that probably sums my form up at the moment. In the last Test match I played I scored a big hundred for Australia. But I'm short of time in the middle.
"It has been seven months since our last Test match and I've only played one one-dayer in between that time. That doesn't make it easier. But you're playing at the highest level. You've got to find a way to fight your backside off and spend time in the middle and then once you get in the game it gradually gets easier."
The problem for Australia's batsmen in this Test has been surviving long enough for batting to become easier. Five of Pakistan's batsmen in the first innings faced more than 100 balls, and two in the second innings. The only men who achieved that feat for Australia in the first innings were the openers David Warner and Chris Rogers, while rapid-fire wickets in the second ended any hope of players building an innings.
"I'm not looking to blame anybody else or criticise anybody else," Clarke said. "I've always loved the challenge of facing spin bowling. I've been out twice to spin bowling in this Test match. The guys are working hard, they're doing everything they can. In subcontinental conditions, generally your first innings is your key, you need to go as big as you can.
"I know Pakistan had the best of batting conditions, but I think in the second innings they showed again their class, batting on wickets that have a little bit of spin. But it's not so much the spin, I think it's the slowness of the wicket. The spin is a little bit inconsistent and I think that's probably what has caught us out today, guys have played for spin and a lot of us have been out to balls that actually haven't spun too much."
It has not just been Pakistan's bowlers who have troubled the Australians in Dubai, though. The efforts of Younis Khan in particular to score two centuries in the game, and Pakistan's batsmen more generally have frustrated Clarke and his men in the field. Clarke said the Australians had been outplayed in every facet of the game over the first four days, and could learn from the way Younis and his colleagues batted.
"We probably haven't been able to find as much out of the wicket as Pakistan have on one hand," he said. "On the other hand Pakistan have batted a lot better than us ... They've got a lot of experience in their Test team, and I think you've seen that so far over the four days. Younis has played exceptionally well and generally does in these conditions.
"You need to take notice, watch and learn and all of us, for the guys that are out, we need to find a way to be full of confidence and be hitting the ball better than we are come the second Test match. For the guys that are left to help see us fight tomorrow. It's really important they play their natural game and back themselves. Anything can happen in this game."
Clarke is usually a believer in the Shane Warne "win from anywhere" mantra, but the word "win" did not spill from Clarke's mouth even once during his 12-minute press conference. Realistically, a draw is the best Australia can hope for with only six wickets in hand, and even that requires a good deal of optimism. This is one place in the world where praying for rain is pointless.
"I don't think Australians give up without a fight and that'll be our goal tomorrow, to fight our backsides off and you never know," Clarke said. "Steve Smith is a very good player of spin bowling, Brad Haddin has a lot of experience, Mitchell Marsh looked good in the first innings and Chris Rogers is fighting. So we'll wait and see."

Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @brydoncoverdale