da marjack bet： Australia gambled with their XI, Clarke set some unconventional fields, but the result remained the same – another day of Pakistan domination

da cassino： Brydon Coverdale in Abu Dhabi30-Oct-2014It was hard to decide what was the strangest sight on the first day in Abu Dhabi, Glenn Maxwell’s name at No. 3 on an Australian Test team-sheet or the presence of a fielder at straight-hit. Or a five-man cordon the batsmen. Australia tried funky selections, funky captaincy and funky fields. At the end of it all, they were still in a funk.By the 63rd over they had used eight bowlers; for a while Michael Clarke and Steven Smith rotated in one-over spells from the north end. They had run out of ideas in Dubai and made up for it here, where they expected the pitch to be even deader. For all the eccentricities the result was the same. Another day of Pakistan domination, another Younis Khan hundred.Clarke walked off the ground clapping his bowlers but might well have scratched his head with Pakistan’s total on 304. He was not exactly short-changed on the bowling front, for the inclusion of Mitchell Starc for Steve O’Keefe gave him an extra fast man on a surface he felt would offer less spin than Dubai. A few half-chances went begging but only two wickets fell. It is hard to visualise an Australian victory from here.It will be fascinating to see how his batsmen fare on day two or, more likely, day three, given that Pakistan will be in no hurry to declare. It will be fascinating full-stop to see this particular batting line-up operate in a Test, with allrounders at first drop and No.6.There was an Australian cricket journalist who used to refer to his head office as “the ideas factory”, a place where half-baked concepts would be formulated with little concern for the man on the ground tasked with implementing them. Clarke might feel like he’s had a visit from the ideas factory himself.Maxwell, the selectors say, has the x-factor. Maxwell as a Test No. 3? That’s a case of the “why?” factor. No longer a selector, Clarke was seen in a long discussion with coach Darren Lehmann at training on match eve. When that tete-a-tete broke up, Clarke called over his vice-captain Brad Haddin and an equally lengthy chat took place.The gist of Clarke’s conversation with Haddin: what the hell do we do with the batting order? Together they came up with the idea that Maxwell would come in at No.3. Clarke was handed Maxwell for Alex Doolan but took responsibility himself for deciding that it would be a straight swap at first drop; by his reckoning, Maxwell handles spin well and has the necessary positivity.”If spin doesn’t open the bowling it will be on pretty early,” Clarke said. “I think batting in these conditions is like batting in the middle order. We have seen what the wicket is like and I think we have seen after about two overs with the new ball, the ball will stop swinging and then we all become middle-order players. If we were playing in different conditions or another part of the world it might have been different.”That Maxwell scored more runs at a higher average than Doolan in the Sheffield Shield last summer suggests that the swap will cost Australia little in the batting department while offering them an extra bowling option. A safer approach would have been to promote the in-form Smith to No. 3 and keep Maxwell down in the lower middle-order, where all of his first-class success has come.Of course, Phillip Hughes must wonder what more he needs to do to avoid being a permanent mascot. He struggled badly against spin in India last year, so presumably the selectors felt Hughes for Doolan would offer them little upside; Maxwell for Doolan at least gave them an extra bowler. But after scoring 597 Shield runs at 54.27 last summer, he deserves to be in the mix for the home Tests against India.Late in the day, Hughes was on the field as a substitute and put in a desperate rolling dive to cut off a boundary when Younis swept Maxwell. It was the kind of selfless act that spoke of a desire to keep impressing, to keep reminding the captain and selectors of his worth. Clarke raised his hands above his head and gave Hughes a hearty clap.By that point, Clarke was happy with any little thing that went right. He had tried everything his imagination could summon. He surmised early that this was not a pitch on which edges would be flying, and within the first 10 overs of the day the fast men were operating with one slip and four catchers in front of the wicket.The most peculiar fielding setups came after lunch when Peter Siddle bowled with two short midwickets, a short mid-on, a short mid-off and a short cover. It was as if the slip cordon had walked in front of the batsman and turned around. Even weirder was the presence of Mitchell Johnson behind the umpire at the top of Siddle’s mark. It could best be described as short straight-hit.”It seemed that was where the ball was going at the time,” Clarke said, “so I tried a fielder there.”By the end of the day David Warner, Chris Rogers and Brad Haddin were the only men who had not been called on to bowl. You wouldn’t rule out their having a trundle on day two. But it was strange that Smith was asked for only three overs, for although he can leak runs his unpredictability creates chances. His first over brought an edge from Azhar Ali that narrowly beat Warner at slip.It could be argued that Clarke mixed things up too much, that he might have been better off plugging away with a more regulation field. But really, would it have made a difference? Pakistan’s batsmen showed in Dubai they are well suited to patience and choosing their shots wisely on pitches that offer the bowlers little.The story goes that it was in Arabia that Aladdin rubbed his lamp, and it was where on day one the Australians similarly hoped to conjure something from nothing. In the end, they conjured nothing out of nothing. They will be glad they are not here for 1001 Arabian nights.