Mad scientist looks for a scrap

"The secrets to decoding Australia's top order are scribbled on Kleenex, scrawled on coasters and written on top of utility bills. Technical flaws are highlighted. So, too, bowling strategies, field settings and other annotations. Viewed as a collection, they just might be the most important body of cricketing work produced in a decade. Finding them, though, might prove difficult."

That is not a description of South Africa's coach or any member of the support staff, nor is it what the inside of some hackneyed laboratory looks like. That's what Dale Steyn's two-year analysis of the Australian batting line-up, charting everything from trigger movements to temperament, appears like. Alex Brown tries to pin him down in the Sydney Morning Herald.

In the Age, Charles Davis says that Michael Clarke's numbers don't add up. Clarke's average when Australia loses is a respectable 38, but the pattern is one of moderate scores, often reaching 20 but with a top score of 81.