Is This The New Hughes?

Hughes punches square past point

Following in the nomenclature footsteps of Kim and Merv, a new, new Hughes spent fifty odd overs in the centre of the split personality Bellerive Oval/Bluntstonep Arena, in order to kick some goals rather the wayward behinds of his previous attempts at Test cricket.

There is no doubt he wants to play Test cricket above all else. It is obvious from the way he has refused to lay down and die despite continually committing batting suicide at the top of the order. Its obvious from his media commitments between being selected and the opening ball. Even after play he was rushing his clichés with Mark Nicholas in the sort of interview only a young nervous man can. Again, he didn't know when enough was enough.

There is no doubt he has been stung by criticism.

There is no doubt he has changed the way he bats and yet, at the end, it was an old problem that robbed him of a comeback hundred. Playing forward with his front foot pointed across the line of the advancing ball and his back foot tucked in behind toward fine leg and all the weight on the front foot, he played outside the ball and was bowled as his bat tried to play to mid on. You just can't stand on one leg and have bat and front leg going in opposite directions.

However, there was much to commend. His new slightly open stance to right handers over the stumps is a definite improvement. It gets him playing at the ball rather than across it. His stance is on off stump in order to both cover the ball moving away and to force the bowlers to put the fuller ball where he wants it for the cover drive. He played two spankers from Shaminda Eranga inside the first ten overs that were as good as anything you would see and another of Rangara Herath much later. When it was shorter, he cut and glided with confidence, his stance already placing him in position. This new position at the crease has opened up his legside play, where previously he couldn't get out of the way of himself.

It was a good display. It's hard to remember that Hughes hasn't reached his 24th birthday yet and is on his third attempt to establish himself. It will be interesting to see how world class bowlers adjust to this new stance. Only Herath could claim that status from among the Sri Lankans but his great asset is patience and flight rather than spin. Hughes dismissal will be noted and a full ball swinging back at his off stump may well be tucked away in reserve by Anderson and Co for the England tour. Hughes, more than any other resource, has been groomed for Australia's attempt to win back the urn. John Inverarity has made that plain. Time will tell but points to the young man based on yesterday and the yesterdays which preceded and got him there ... again.

Apart from Ed Cowan, who seemed eager to rip and tear and aimed to pull a ball that he never had control over and instead spooned to mid on, the remainder of the Australian batting line up were efficient against a Sri Lankan attack which used their meagre resources effectively but to no avail.

If batting is about partnerships as is so often touted, then the Australians got it right yesterday. After Cowan's early departure, Dave Warner and Phil Hughes added 79 before Warner proved that old adage about hesitation and loss to be seer-like in its accuracy. He pushed the ball to cover, called and set off and then changed his mind once Hughes had a full head of steam. That Warner should suffer the consequences was fitting as it was his fault. There was no tolerance in a tight single for Hughes to falter but despite the clarity of where the blame lay, he was the last man off the field for lunch, lingering even well behind the men in black pants.

Hughes and Shane Watson added 86 in ninety minutes in the second session. Watson played a strangely restrained innings, perhaps concerned to make a good fist of his first dig at number four. His defence looked good and he played the ball more effectively off the back foot, something he needs to do more often. He was out again playing away from his front pad and expansively forward, edging to slips, where Mahela Jayawardene took a blinder that was high and to his right at second slip. As was said in commentary, one can only hope they are present to see the catch which beats it for catch of the season.

Hughes left soon after, bowled through the swinging gate by Welegedera but that old firm of Clarke and Hussey put their heads down in the last session. The mark of men who play long and successfully for Australia is their professionalism and their ability to apply themselves to the task. There has rarely been anyone who has done that better than Mike Hussey and with his skipper in such dominant form of late, batting in Australia's middle order is one feast after another.

Welegedera took 3-99

Sri Lanka made the most of things on the first day. They might have had Cowan second ball when a near impossible chance was spilled by Angelo Mathews at slip but they fielded enthusiastically for the rest of the day and bowled tight lines. Herath bowled well but it was a mystery why it took until the 36th over for him to bowl, after rigorous warm ups on two earlier occasions. Both times, the ball was thrown instead to the steady but innocuous Mathews who looks little more than an accurate net bowler. The left armer Chanaka Welegedera was loose but looked the most likely to take even more that the three first day wickets he claimed. Shaminda Eranga will be lively on a track with more bounce but the one day specialist Nuwan Kulasekara was the best on offer and made the Australian work hard for their runs.

The wicket is already showing signs of varying bounce and pace, with several batsmen - notably Clarke and Hussey in the last session - having to adjust quickly to balls keeping low. It won't get any livelier under the mild, damp conditions being forecast for each day of the Test. Rain may well dog most of the mornings. Not a place for warm blooded Test cricketers.