MICHAEL CLARKE might well be the motivational strategist he is being hailed as back home after Australia’s pulsating victory in the Kensington Oval Test.
His confident assertion after the third day that Australia could win a match that, on the face of it, was heading for an inevitable, run- burdened draw revealed his “sense of adventure”, inspired, he said, by Shane Warne’s similar bravado after England declared at 551 for six in their first innings in the second 2006-07 Ashes Test and still lost.
His first innings declaration 43 runs behind (even if with nine wickets down) undoubtedly presented a timely challenge to opponents exasperated by the failure to finish off the tail-end and physically drained by an extended opening session of three hours.
Clarke rated it as “special a
