Superman Clarke plays a more earthly,Kent-like knock

It didnt take very long for Michael Clarke to find his rhythm. He leant into Nuwan Kulasekaras in-jagging delivery and worked it away through midwicket for his first boundary

It didnt take very long for Michael Clarke to find his rhythm. He leant into Nuwan Kulasekaras in-jagging delivery and worked it away through midwicket for his first boundary. The Australian captain hadnt spent more than five minutes out in the centre,and he had already middled the first seven balls he had faced. At that point,he must have wondered why David Warner,Mathew Wade and Ricky Ponting had barely managed to get bat on ball. He was soon about to find out.

Just as fast as Clarke had slipped into form on Friday,he slipped right out of it. As the next delivery from Kulasekara jumped off the grassy patch,Clarke mistimed his shot and the ball wobbled off his willow to square leg. It would remain the theme for the rest of his grinding knock on the fresh wicket that the third ODI of this tri-series was played on.

While the first boundary arrived in almost no time,Clarkes next came nearly one-and-a-half hours later,when a frustrated looking man lofted spinner Sachithra Senanayake over his head for a one bounce crash into the hoardings. It probably wasnt the stroke to play with his team languishing at 87/4,but there was only so much the form-man from the Test series could tolerate.

After Clarkes blink-and-miss enigma was put on display with that hit in the 20th over,it tucked right back into the shell as the captain trenched out one of his uglier innings. With almost no strokes on offer,Clarke poked,plundered,jabbed and mishit his way to an 88-ball 57 that he wont remember for very long. But with the crutch of hindsight,it was his gruelling innings that ended up doing what no other player did 8212; glueing together the Australian innings. A glue that eventually resulted in a five-run win.

Im happy with the win,thats for sure. That is my goal as batsman and captain. But when I think of my own performance,I was disappointed with the way I batted. I couldnt time the ball or play any strokes,but I decided to hang in there, said a bittersweet Clarke at the end of the match. What made things both easier and difficult for Clarke was when Dan Christian,playing in just his second ODI,walked in at No.7 and hit the ball cleanly from the word go.

Easy because Christians smack-a-minute 33 with four fours and a six showed him how to go about things in the last 10 overs. Difficult because Clarke just couldnt get himself to do it. It was that type of wicket and Ive got some really good strikers around me. Unfortunately it got a bit hard to score so I took upon myself that role of scratching around, he added. Ill do whatever it takes to win,even if it involves playing an innings of this nature.

Had someone watched Clarke for the first time this summer on Friday,it would have been hard from them to convince themselves that the same man was coming off a string of innings that involved a triple century followed by a double hundred not too long ago. While those were knocks played by Superman in him,today was the day Clarke embraced the Kent within.