Hobart - Nice Game, Shame About the Place

Australia won the first Test against Sri Lanka in front of empty seats in Hobart. They won not so much because they were the better team but far more because Sri Lanka were the weaker. In fact, the same demons which have beset the home side all summer - injury and a lack of bowling penetration - were just as obvious, but such deficiencies are often overlooked in the face of victory.

Michael Clarke

At least a real Test wicket was finally on show. To date, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth have provided the players with surfaces the equivalent of those which might be prepared by the Main Roads Dept. The batsman friendly surfaces designed to last for two weeks were likely a thinly disguised and no doubt vehemently denied tactic to remove the influence of South Africa's high quality and well performed pace attack. Where Perth once had more cracks than a tradesman's convention, it was all sensible high waisted cotton tails in early December with not a crack in sight. Not so in Hobart. From the third morning, the plate cracks were shaking hands and making those wobbly, odd-sided triangles just aching to launch torpedos and have fast bowlers cutting the ball like a Shane Warne leg break.

The disadvantage Australia slipped to through the injury to Ben Hilfenhaus and to a lesser extent, Michael Clarke, was more than made up for by Mahela Jayawardene calling incorrectly before play on Friday and Sri Lanka being handed the almost inevitable poisoned challis of batting last. As it was, they lasted four sessions and were within ten overs of surviving. For those that think this makes a lottery of the toss and diminishes the game, you may go to hell not knowing a thing about the game for players understand and accept this as part of their responsibility. Its why they call it a Test, dear. Hobart and her curator, got it just about right. The team totals followed the law of diminishing returns, with each successive innings total lower, but there were no disasters, no horror deliveries and batting was only difficult, not impossible, on the last day.

Australia won thanks to two players. There were good supporting roles played by Starc and Hussey and Hughes and Warner and Cowan but the stars were Clarke and Siddle. In the first innings, Clarke made sure a good total became a big total, scoring 74 steadily from 121 added whilst he was at the wicket. In the second, with the pitch already playing tricks and Australia wanting to set up a declaration and have plenty of time to bowl at Sri Lanka, Clarke made a second fifty for the match, in less than an hour and at faster than a run a ball. His captaincy was superb, accepting innovation as part of his array of tricks. Even the unusual and unlikely tactic of asking Matt Wade to bowl an over before tea on the last day should be applauded. There was nothing to lose. Wade did something only Rod Marsh (among Australian 'keepers) had done in a Test match but unlike Marsh, Wade was on when Australia was pushing for victory. In the last session, he rotated his dwindling resources carefully and when it mattered most, primed his most threatening bowlers and then cheered them through every over.

Siddle removes Sangakkara

His ace was no doubt Siddle but his management of the big-heart Victorian couldn't be better. Siddle, for his part, was superb with the rock in hand. Every ball was at the batsman's vulnerability, a skill McDermott taught him and just as Australian teams had Warne and McGrath to bowl at the death, they now have Siddle. Starc bagged the noted return in the end, but it was Siddle who had worked out and got out a Sri Lankan batting line up that kept persisting. Without Siddle's input they would have. Just as he was a worthy Man of the Match, the spurious claims by the touring side's management about ball tampering directed at Siddle and Cowan, were echoes of previous tours. Discordant notes seem to have been part and parcel of Sri Lankan tours since Muralitharan first got burnt at the chuck stake here. Ajuna I-Need-A-Runnertunga had his moment of glory when English skipper Alec Stewart critiqued his decorum at Adelaide on another occasion and ball tampering has been a claim on high rotation each time they venture here and claim the tea isn't as good as at home.

I can hear the plastic bins being tipped out on the street outside which means its all just rubbish.

The selectors have finally named Tasmanian Jackson Bird to replace Ben Hilfenhaus in the squad but its unlikely he'll get a run. After they got back within kiss and make up distance of Mitch Johnson in Perth, he'll no doubt be given another chance on Boxing Day in Melbourne. Bird would be the better bet, especially with tours to India and England to follow, places where the emerging fast medium bowler would be infinitely better suited than the limited Johnson. Usman Khawaja has been named as nothing more than a shadow for Michael Clarke's whammy hammy. Clarke won't miss a Boxing Day Test with a series undecided. Khawaja should have been picked in Brisbane to bat at three and given a chance to grow into the role, especially as he has been used on three occasions already as a fill in. Every time he bats at Test level he looks to have the maturity and skill to be a permanent No 3 but every time the selectors run back to other inventions to see if the magic dust will chance sows ears. So far, no joy.

Australia's biggest selection worries are Shane Watson and Nathan Lyon, who have failed to deliver this summer. Watson looked like a man who didn't remember how to bat and scratched around in both innings before going forward in preposterous lunges in both innings to lose his wicket. Lyon bowled like a manic, wind up toy for much of the second innings, wheeling at the top of his mark and getting through his overs like he was in a hurry not to lose his place in the toilet queue. He was flat, too quick and couldn't spin the ball even when the cracks had turned into gully erosion. This isn't the same bowler who bowled with such studied consideration in Brisbane in November.

Wade - Australia's most
successful wicket keeper bowler

I'll choose to overlook another poor keeping performance from Wade, highlighted by but not constrained to the blunderous missed stumping. He rises too early when standing up, turns his thumbs inward as the ball approaches and has a softness in his hands reminiscent of Rod Marsh's "irongloves" days. Some in the media are murmuring "Haddin" softly, but it must be another case of Chinese whispers which started out as "Paine". Now we know he's actually a bowler standing in, it's appropriate we cut him some slack.

Sri Lanka was well served by several of their batsmen but how they can take twenty Australia wickets with this bowling attack is uncertain. Jayawardene's tactics were surprising in relation to his trump, Ranga Herath. In both Australian innings, Herath was held back. In both innings, he was the last of six bowlers used, starting in the first innings in the 36th over and in the second, in the 32nd. Odd use of the rotund little left hander, especially given he is the leading wicket taker in Test cricket this year! Kulesakara was steady and showed enough to be considered useful and Welegedera, although wild and costly, is a genuine wicket taker. The rest are unlikely to both the Australians. Its an aging but classy batting line up and all but Jayawardene spent some quality time in the middle and were far from disgraced under the circumstances.

Australia has weaknesses - 3 and 4 in the batting and everyone but Siddle among the bowlers - and if Sri Lanka can mount sustained pressure and use Herath more effectively, then they are far from out of this series. The chances of them doing that seem lowered by the ball tampering claims.

Old tricks, old dogs.

Blundstone Arena (Bellerive Oval)
day one

Finishing where I started ... the support of the Hobart public was pitiful and the creative accounting of the ground officials an insult. The crowds were threadbare and even the sleight of hand of oddly patterned different coloured seats didn't deny the TV audience the reality that no one had turned up. As much as Cricket Australia needs to support Tasmanian cricket - particularly at a time when it is so strong - venues cannot expect Tests to be scheduled and then provide less than a handful of spectators. Whatever the problem is in Hobart, it must be redressed. Perhaps thermals should come with the ticket. Cazaly's in Cairns or Mararra in Darwin couldn't possibly have drawn smaller crowds. In fact, regional towns such as Lismore or Newcastle in NSW would have swamped even the official figures released for Blundstone/Bellerive and would have been a universe ahead of the reality. Fudging the numbers isn't going help the cause.