'The innings of the 21st century'

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Greg Baum leads the tributes to Michael Clarke, who declared Australia's innings when he was batting on 329.

An innings such as this is by definition larger than life, yet consists of a repetition of life-sized acts: those glorious covers drives, that effortless easing to leg, the feather-light footwork against the off-spinner. One ball might have halted it. Ask Shaun Marsh, who faced only one, or Rahul Dravid, who last night was bowled an exceptional one by Ben Hilfenhaus. Yet Clarke outlived all of the game's happenstance, leaving for the record an innings that will outlive him.

"Unless ransacked by the likes of Bradman, Lara or Sehwag, triple-centuries are not usually remembered for much other than their scale: by their nature, they imply one-sided contests and one-way traffic, which are not the stuff of legend. The records overlap, the strokes blur, the contexts are forgotten," writes Gideon Haigh in the Australian. "Michael Clarke's might be an exception."

To go with the usual array of drives, flicks and glances, there were yesterday some pectoral-flexing pull shots, a sweep he absolutely nailed off Ravichandran Ashwin, and a pick-up off the pads to a Umesh Yadav inswinger that flew like an artillery shell. It used to be that Clarke could be constrained by the old ball and defensive fields; here he showed an instinct to take on rather than merely to tick over.

Sourav Ganguly, in the Sydney Morning Herald, says, "What stood out even more for me than Michael Clarke's magnificent innings was the declaration."

It is not often a batsman gets into that position. There was so much time left in the Test, his team was leading by more than 450, the opposition was struggling and the pitch was flat. This was a rare opportunity for Clarke to carry on and break the world record set by Brian Lara.

It was all set for him against a tired bowling and fielding unit. But he did what lot of captains trying to win cricket matches would have done. He put the perspective of the game and interests of his team before personal landmarks. And he put a tired team, both physically and mentally, into bat.

The editorial in the Australian called Clarke's 329 the innings of the 21st century: "The Bradman/Taylor mark stands, but Clarke can claim the innings of the 21st century, a remarkable, old-fashioned performance by a captain who lived up to the finest traditions of the game. In an impatient age, blighted by a deficit of concentration and courage, Clarke and Ponting provided tonic for the soul."

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Chris Barrett has more on why Michael Clarke was batting with a cleanskin bat, without a sponsor's sticker.

MICHAEL CLARKE walked into Harry Solomons's sports store at Kingsgrove a week ago carrying a handful of bats. He asked his old friend and former employer if he could remove the stickers from them ahead of the second Test against India beginning three days later. It was New Year's Eve, the day Clarke's three-year bat and equipment contract with Slazenger expired.

The 100th SCG Test has been Clarke's crowning glory, but for the sporting goods brand that has been behind him since he was 12 it has been like quitting the Beatles in 1962.