Celebrating Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Greg Baum retells the moment when Ricky Ponting finally ended his century drought.

Resuming, Ponting re-marked his guard, recomposing himself. But impatience overwhelmed judgment when he drove Ishant Sharma to mid-on and called intemperately. Sensing disaster as Zaheer Khan swooped at mid-on, Ponting dived headlong. It would not have saved him if Zaheer's throw had hit, but it did not. When he dared to look up, Ponting saw the bails intact.

The acclaim came in four parts: a roar, a gasp, a muting and a redoubled roar as Ponting at last hoisted himself off the ground and raised his arms. His shirt, smeared in dirt, looked like a little boy's. So did his face. He and Clarke looked at one another and laughed at the mischief of it all. This was Ponting's 40th Test century, but his first for two years, almost to the week. At 37, he goes on with lighter tread.

"Ponting's century overshadowed the far greater contribution of Michael Clarke," writes Richard Hinds in the Sydney Morning Herald. "However the skipper's innings was significant for more than just its magnitude and the records it eclipsed. Some still seem hesitant to forgive Clarke the follies of his youth - fast cars, faster girlfriends. But if money could not buy him love, Clarke's new substance-over-style approach both with bat, and as an intuitive captain, commands respect."

In the Guardian, Mike Selvey focuses on the role Craig McDermott has played as bowling coach of the Australia team, and his mantra of keeping the ball full on pitches that offer some assistance.

The thing is this, though: which school of thought is he coming from here? Is he the expert arriving and revealing a secret known only to an enlightened few? Or is he just stating the bleedin' obvious, that if there is lateral movement available of any description, then it pays to pitch the ball up (a few feet we are talking here) so that batsmen are in what Kenny Barrington used to call two-man's land, where they know they need to come forward but cannot do so with complete comfort, but neither can they play back with safety. In other words, the length that is drilled into the England team, where the ball will hit the top of off‑stump.

Of course the answer is obvious. This is no secret recipe passed down from one bowling generation to another. It is a fundamental of the game and I dare say that McDermott must be wondering what on earth it is that his predecessors have been doing instead. There is a reason for this, though, and it is that, while there are many extremely intelligent bowlers out there (in a cricketing sense), the modern bowler is spoon-fed information.