England vs Australia 2013: Michael Clarke doubtful for final ODI

Michael Clarke

Michael Clarke, who is suffering from a back problem, is likely to miss the final one-day match against England at Southampton. He has been suffering from the problem for more than three months now, and was not fully fit when he played the Ashes.

Australia coach Darren Lehmann has said that the final call would be made before the toss. If he complains of a back problem, he will not be risked for the final one-day match at Southampton. The Australian coach speaking to AAP said: “It’s a big game but if he’s not right, we won’t risk him, it’s an important series but we’ve got another one-day series and an Ashes series coming up.”

Clarke, who scored a splendid century in the second ODI, did not look comfortable at the crease in the fourth ODI. He found it difficult to handle the bounce of Boyd Rankin and was eventually out for 22. “We’ll look at the pitch but I think that’s the probably the way we’d go,” Lehmann added. “It gives him an opportunity. He’s playing really well and working on his game and that’s all we can ask. He’s ready to go. Hopefully he gets his chance and away he goes.”

Australia bowled extremely well in the fourth match and had England on the ropes at 144/6. But Jos Butler’s late assault took the game away from Australia.

“It gets down to a grand final set-up now, which is great,” Lehmann said. “That’s what we want the players put under most of the time, although you would have loved to close out the series.

“We’re certainly playing the right brand of cricket, we just made a couple of elementary mistakes. Apart from that, we’ve pretty much played how we want to play. Now the case is we want to finish on a high and get moving on.”

Clint McKay, who got a hat-trick in the fourth match, was unable to digest the defeat. ‘The boys are a bit flat,” the pacer said. ”We had a massive opportunity to take this series home and unfortunately we couldn’t deliver. But we’ll bounce back and fight hard again on Monday.”