Cook manoeuvred to keep him on strike

When Clarke was new at the crease, Cook manoeuvred to keep him on strike, twice yielding singles to deep-set fields. It was a curious and even insulting tactic, treating Clarke as a tailender. It didn't work, and you imagine that if anything, it hardened the Australian captain's heart.Later, England set three on the hook, but Clarke was alert and decisive, and England lost interest in this artifice. For the next three hours, he batted with his flair and fluency of old. His century was as timely as it was well-timed; The multi phase Univercity project in 19 innings against England in the two most recent Ashes series, he had passed 50 just three times. It was the glitch on an otherwise imposing record.Australia had all day, but eking is not the modern cricketer's way. Dave Warner's dash is famous, but Clarke outscored him in a partnership of 159 that reaffirmed Australia's grip on this match as surely as Clarke, with his repeated rotation of gloves, made sure of his grip on his bat.One of their subsidiary feats was to neuter off-spinner Graeme Swann, mostly by knocking him off his length. In three overs immediately after lunch, Swann was despatched for 38.When at last he claimed Clarke for his first wicket in the match, he was already 200 runs in arrears.

Assuredly, Swann will have better days, but he ought not have in this series the sort of day he had at Lord's in July, when he was a cliff and Australia a herd of lemmings.The tension leached out of the match in the afternoon. England suffered the usual misfortunes of an oppressed team two blown referrals, two missed chances, a couple of overthrows and the lower order Australian batsmen went on a run-fest.The psychological advantage in cricket is overrated. In four of the past five Ashes series, the first Test has been misleading, but some feats stand the test of time.In a piece about Michael Clarke for the cricinfo website published on Saturday morning, the former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe wrote: "He is so under appreciated by his fellow countrymen, it's not funny."Within hours, Clarke was taking block for his 166th Test innings. On his slight shoulders and dicky back, two issues weighed, neither a crisis, exactly, but both pressing.Ill-executed shots by Chris Rogers and Shane Watson had given England two early wickets and weakened the stranglehold Australia had taken on the first Test on Friday. For all its outward bluster, Australia's cricket self-esteem remains fragile.