Unless you saw it you wouldn’t believe it, M Hussey (the King Probot) back in form again.
It wasn’t a magical innings, but he doesn’t really play magical innings.
He was efficient, selective, calm, measured and frustratingly solid (© M Hussey) .
It wasn’t free flowing, but it was a long way from his stoic crease occupation mode as well.
It has been a long time since he made a hundred in any form of cricket, 9 months to be exact, so the fact this was only a warm up on a good pitch and he got dropped didn’t seem to matter as much as him getting his “groove” back.
As someone who has watched him for 18 months trudge around the crease like a lone born again Christian at the Sydney Mardi Gras, I can honestly say this was way better.
The bowling was good, Onions and Harmy were on their game, and Bresnan was very respectable.
There was no demons in the pitch, but Hussey has been bringing his own demons for 18 months, a lesser probot would have been crushed by now, but fuck me if Hussey isn’t the little mainframe that could.
In the media there will be a lot of talk of how Australia are struggling with the bat, but the one man they have been waiting on for longer than consecutive pregnancies finally looks like himself again, so this first innings must be regarded as some sort of success.
Some people, you dirty cynical fuckers, might say that any batsmen would come good if he was given 18 months to find his form again, but that kind of talk is disgusting, even if it is correct.
Michael Hussey did do one other great thing today, he held the Australian batting together, which meant it was harder for the English scribes to stick the boot in, especially as Australia out scored England against a way (Rikki Clarke got English wickets) better attack.
Jarrod thinks the perfect companion for the Ashes is his book, and he says so with glorious bias.
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