Late tribute for Clarke's gritty ton

Australian opener Chris Rogers has added his voice to the chorus of praise for his captain Michael Clarke’s courageous, career-defining century in the series-deciding Test match against South Africa in Cape Town.

Rogers, who heads to England next week to resume his own captaincy tenure with county team Middlesex, claimed Clarke virtually willed himself to a matchwinning century through the strength of his character as much as the quality of his strokeplay.

But the veteran opener is also keen to set the record straight on the details of the helping hand – or more precisely, the call to arms he answered – to ensure his skipper was able to continue his memorable innings after being battered and broken by South African hit man Morne Morkel.

In the wake of his stoic, unbeaten 161 at Newlands, during which he was repeatedly struck by Morkel bouncers and was later revealed to have batted for much of his innings with a fractured left shoulder, Clarke confirmed he had borrowed Rogers’ trusted forearm guard.

Unable to sleep due to the pain of the injuries he had sustained on the opening day of the match, Clarke resumed his knock on the second morning with Rogers’ arm guard in place to provide additional reinforcement.

It was a noticeable addition, given that Clarke has steadfastly refused to wear anything more than a towelling sweatband above his batting gloves to protect his front arm for most of his 10-year international career.

What made it even more out of character was that Clarke takes great pride in his sartorial appearance on and off the field, and it’s not unfair to suggest that Rogers’ sweat-stained, battle-weary arm guard is as pragmatically unfashionable as its owner.

So when the suggestion was made that Clarke fit the padded shield that morning, Rogers could not find it within him to send his captain out on the world stage clad in the grimy, misshapen relic he’s been carrying around with him for much of his 15-year first-class career.

Instead, he offered Clarke the much newer, far more pristine spare guard that was itself bequeathed to him by one of his teammates.

“Davey Warner gave me one of his arm guards a while ago, so I have a spare one,” Rogers revealed to cricket.com.au.

“So that was the one.

“I wouldn’t let Michael Clarke of all people go out with my arm guard.”

While his conscience would not permit him to have the Australian captain seen in his gruesome guard, Rogers was unapologetic in his belief that a batsman should take every available precaution to ensure he’s able to keep batting.

“I tried to convince him (Clarke) to wear it because I think if there’s protection available, why wouldn’t you use it?” Rogers said.

“If it saves you from getting a broken arm and not being able to bat and then costing the team, I think you should wear it.

“But I understand there are people who don’t feel comfortable with it.

“In the end, it’s completely personal.

“But it was nice to play a little bit of a role in Michael Clarke’s hundred.”

While Rogers is typically understated about the influence he brought to bear on the innings that set up Australia’s series win over the world’s top-ranked Test team, he can’t speak highly enough of the manner in which Clarke set himself for his defiant knock.

Heading into the match, Australia’s foremost batsman had endured a lean trot that had not yielded a score above 25 across his previous 11 Test innings.

It was a run of outs that would have piqued Clarke’s professional pride as much as it galvanised him to produce a captain’s innings in a match that was unofficially destined to decide the world’s pre-eminent Test team.

“I can see the pride in Michael, and that he felt he hadn’t reached the standards that he sets himself,” Rogers said.

“So you could see how much he wanted it, and he was going to run through a wall to do well and to really show to everyone that he’s as good as anyone in the world.

“It was a crucial innings for us, and it was almost like we couldn’t lose from that point.

“So to see what he went through to get us into that position was almost representative of how much we wanted to change the fortunes around from what had happened over the previous period (during 2013) where there hadn’t been success for Australia.

“At times you can try too hard and want it too much, and there’s no doubt that Michael wanted it so badly.

“He hit more balls in the nets than anyone, leading into that Test, and would go down to the nets on days off and have hits.

“There’s an argument to say that might not be the best thing to do, but if you are doing that, you can tell yourself you’ve ticked all the boxes and you’re happy with your preparation.

“Mentally, he just needed to get to that point and then relax and enjoy it, which he seemed to at the end of that innings.

“And certainly at the end of the match.”