“We are letting everyone down at the moment with the way we are batting but we will surely have a last laugh,” says the Australian skipper Michael Clarke after his team suffered a humiliating defeat by 347 runs off the hands of England on Sunday at Lord’s. Australian top-order is looking quite vulnerable in this series because of which even putting on total of more than 300 runs seems to be quite big. Usman Khawaja and Aussie captain did scored half-centuries in the second innings, but that wasn’t enough to escape the defeat.
Ian Bell and Joe Root scored brilliant hundreds in first and second innings of England, respectively, which allowed them to set a huge target of 583 in the final innings of the Test for Australia. Graeme Swann did the early damage with the ball which didn’t allow Clarke & Co. to leave their mark in this match. But Clarke still believes that ruling out the possibility of their comeback can be a big mistake for Alastair Cook and his men. England will face of Aussies at Old Trafford on August 1.
Meanwhile, Clarke was quoted by Times of India saying, "I'm still confident we can win this series. I know a lot of the crowd laughed when I said that, and rightly so with the position we are in right now, but all of our top order have made a fifty and we need someone who can go on and make a big hundred -- as England have done.”
"We are letting everyone down at the moment with the way we are batting. We need to perform better to win this third Test but we have time to prepare. Our performance with the bat was unacceptable. The wicket was very good for batting. We had a great opportunity but we let ourselves down," Clarke added.
Clarke pointed out correctly that it’s their shot selection which has let them down rather than the ability to apply themselves in difficult times. He was quoted by Hindustan Times saying, "We have plenty of experience in our top seven, but our shot selection was poor and we didn't have the discipline that England had.”
"They were willing to bat for long periods and graft through the tough periods, but we certainly weren't in that first innings. You do take it to heart more as captain because you care about your team-mates but I felt the same when I was just a player. It used to hurt me just as much. The reason you play any sport I guess is to try and win -- that's the way I have been brought up,” he said.
Meanwhile reports in Deccan Chronicle quoted him saying, "But half of my problem I guess is that I walked into such a great Australian team that won as a habit and that was something I became accustomed to and used to. I don't want that to change. At the moment we are not performing as well as I would like. We have to get better. We have so much support, with so many Australians around, a lot of the English have been very supportive towards us, and people back home are cheering us on.
"Our bowlers are fighting hard. We are making them bowl every single day because we are not putting enough runs on the board," he concluded.
