Captained to a Tee

The result of last night’s Twenty20 came down to some superb bowling, fielding and poor batting, but all of it was brought on by perfect tactics from captain Michael Clarke.

He may be criticised for his inability to tonk hard in T20s, but without his solid 32 off 26 balls and his decision making in the field last night, Australia never would have come out victorious in that game.

It all started at the 8th over. Tait was brought back on for his 3rd over. The state of the game was not desperate for Australia, but Clarke wanted a wicket and a tight over after the previous went for 11. And sure enough Tait delivered, dismissing Malik and only giving away 2. Clarke then raised a few eyebrows in the 14th over when Clarke brought Tait on to use up his final over. He immediately removed the danger man Kamran Akmal, which started the rot of the Pakistan innings. With only 2 off the over the run rate returned to around a run a ball.

The next over was another surprise. Steve Smith was brought back into the attack despite copping a bit of stick. Clarke showed faith in the young leggy and even went aggressive by bringing in a slip to new batsman Fawad Alam. Sure enough first ball to him was edged straight to the slip. Brilliant. He continued with Smith who picked up a second.

In between that the experienced Johnson had his final over used (the 16th over!) and it was another great decision, as he amazingly bowled a maiden and put the pressure right back on.

He then had the cool heads of Nannes and Watson to bowl the last couple of overs. And it was perfect. I don’t think any other captain in world cricket would have forged a win out of that game for Australia. A minor difference such as saving Tait for the end, or not going with Steve Smith probably would have resulted in a loss.

The Cricinfo headline has it wrong. “Clarke owes Tait and Co.” should read “Tait and Co. owes Clarke”, because he bowled them at the times that suited them perfectly.